Beyond the Void
by dctrwho
Summary: The Doctor is lonely, and after plummeting into another dimension, he meets Jessica Bennett, who could help him get back to his own world. But he's not the only one who's lonely, because Jess has known all her life that she was an outcast, someone unlike the rest. When her lifelong hero comes and rescues her, she may fall into the temptation of being his new companion. / no romance
1. Chapter One: Hello, I'm The Doctor

Jessica Bennett had a thing about rainy days. Although the sky looked sad and the world looked dreary, her mood was the complete opposite. In fact, she felt quite comforted.

But that day was not a day to smile at the rain. She'd had enough of life - school, her mother, her lack of friends - and she needed something fictional to absorb.

She contemplated reading a book, but her small library was already read over more than ten times; she didn't feel like watching a movie, and she wasn't exactly in the mood to watch gruesome things like Supernatural or Hannibal. So, she settled with her favorite: Doctor Who.

 _Clunk, clunk, clunk._ The sound of her shoes echoed through the wooden stairs of her house and emitted all around her in a sense of drowsiness. She ran a hand through her sopping wet hair and gave a small huff. Yes, today was definitely not a day to smile at the rain.

She trudged up to her bedroom and was welcomed by her TV and her oh-so-comfortable messy bed. Before she pounced, however, she grabbed her blue-and-silver sonic screwdriver, whisked past her battery-operated Dalek (which was motion-activated and screamed " _EXTER-MINATE!_ " when she walked by), and finally fiddled with her TARDIS - which wasn't life-sized, sadly - momentarily.

She dropped her bag in a growing pile of disarray clothes and shoes near the foot of her bed, and turned on her TV. To her surprise, the most beautiful sound blared through the house (but she quickly turned it down, as she was afraid she might destroy her eardrums): the sound of the TARDIS ripping through time and space. But, as the show started, and Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper chatted on-screen, a fainter noise played from what sounded like outside.

Jess found this rather odd, as she'd never heard that particular sound anywhere in the small town that she lived in. It could have been a car or a band, but she threw on her faded Converse and her unloved rain jacket anyway and hurried outside.

At first, she saw nothing. But then - in the distance, way beyond where she usually ventured (which was only to the back porch) - she saw a flicker of light, and the noise stopped.

As quickly as she could manage, she rushed past her small backyard and ventured into the strip of forest that her family owned, but still, saw nothing.

She was about to give up and say it wasn't important, but a small voice in her head (or maybe it was her gut) was telling her to keep walking. And although her feet were getting wet and her hair was dripping and it was the middle of winter when it should have been snowing, she did. So, as a last resort, she walked further and further, past the comfort of her backyard and the outdoors-y-ness of the wood, and arrived at a small clearing that she remembered from her childhood.

Although she couldn't see much with the rain in her eyes, Jess almost fainted with exhilaration. There was a tall man in a tweed jacket with sewn-on patches on his elbows pacing back and forth, an angry aura emitting from him. But not just any man, Jess _knew_ that hair, and that coat, and those shoes.

"Uh, excuse me," Jess stuttered, closer now, as this man surely couldn't be in her presence.

"Oh, uh, hello!" he said, completely astonished that he might find a human in a world full of humans. "Hm, I know this is going to sound a bit weird, but where am I?" He had a British accent, which was extremely uncommon in her area.

Her hands instantly felt clammy. Her throat tightened, and her heart was beating faster than usual when she saw this man's face.

"You - you're - you - no! That can't be! Why would you be here? Wouldn't you be - um - oh, I dunno, filming or - or something?" Jess couldn't believe this was happening. _This_ man, one of her most favorite people of all time, couldn't - just _couldn't_ \- be here. It was impossible. Absolutely impossible.

"Filming? I don't-" the man began.

"Oh! It's pouring," she said, cutting him off. "Would you like to come inside? I could make you coffee - oh wait, you're British, nevermind - do you want tea?"

The man looked confused for a moment, but then smiled. "I'd love some tea."

The two - soaked with rain - entered the house to which she made them both a cup of tea. Jess stood over the counter and gripped the edge tight, her heart pumping and her breath quickening.

"Is that a sonic screwdriver?" the man questioned, picking up the toy Jess had forgotten as she ran outside.

"Oh, uh, yeah," she replied, slightly embarrassed. She walked back over to him. "My mum got it for me a few years ago; big fan and all." She blushed, and handed the warm cup to the man. "Got a few other things up in my room. Dalek and everything."

The man jumped from his seat. "Dalek? What?" He took out his own sonic screwdriver - a prop, Jess assumed - and pointed it towards the ceiling.

"It's a toy. Completely battery-operated and the size of this mug. The closest thing it does to exterminating is screaming the word whenever you walk past it." The man cocked an eyebrow and sat down.

"I'm guessing I'm in America, am I right? I'm not exactly fond of America. I mean, whenever I'm here I get a gun pointed at my face. I don't suppose you're gonna point a gun at my face, are you?" The man smiled, and Jess could have squealed (although she wondered why he'd be threatened by guns in America) over that stupid goofy smile that she loved so much.

"Geez, you must have been to a _crazy_ party or something. I mean, how much alcohol does it take to make someone forget where they are? And it's December the twenty-second, two-thousand thirteen, in case you forgot that too."

"Who are you?" he asked, which made Jess want to melt. "You know what a Dalek is - not that you couldn't, as they invaded before - you have a sonic screwdriver, you seem to know who I am; I mean, you're not running off or anything from a strange man with a bowtie who just randomly appears at your house. Who _are_ you?"

"Well, I'm Jessica Bennett, but I go by Jess, I watch your television show, and I'm a fan. Nothing special. Why? Do you not remember _anything_? And did you say _invasion?_ And why were you in my backyard, anyway?"

" _Television show_? What? I don't have a television show!"

"Don't be stupid," Jess said with much effort, "I watch it all the time. In fact, it's on in my room right now."

Jess brought the man up to her room, in which he marveled over her merchandise.

"But, that's _me_! And the me _before_ me! What! And that's a Dalek! And a Cyberman! And - is that a picture of - oh _gosh_! This _can't_ be. It's not _possible_!" He walked around the room, checking everything out - which Jess found quite baffling, because he had to pose for most of her things after all. But then he turned to the TV, and his jaw dropped.

"No, no, _no_! But, I _remember_ this! From my own eyes! It seems a bit exaggerated, but _how_ is this possible! _Unless_..." he turned towards Jess.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"Of course."

"Then what's my name?"

Jess snuck a glance at his beautiful, intricate eyes and muttered, "Matt. Your name is Mattew Robert Smith and you play the eleventh regeneration of the Doctor in a British science-fiction television series called _Doctor Who_."

He smiled. Not a happy smile, but that smile he got when he knew what was happening. "I'm not him. And maybe you knew that, because _how_ could _he_ possibly be _here_ , in _America, w_ hen he would be doing anything, _anything_ else _anywhere_ else? Because _I'm_ not _him_." He grinned. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Nice to meet you," he said, playfully extending his hand.

Jess's eyes widened in astonishment, and she felt as if she could throw up with all of the somersaults her stomach was doing.

"No! No, that's not possible! He's a fictional character! You should know, you _play_ the damn guy!" Jess couldn't believe it. Not for a second. This must have been some kind of trick.

"Listen - wait, did you say two-thousand thirteen? Last time I was on Earth, it was two-thousand and eleven."

"What are you talking about, _last time I was on Earth._ This is sick. _Why_ is this happening to me?" Jess threw her hands up in frustration. "You - of all people - the man I've _idolized_ since, like, well, a _while_! This is _sick_!"

"Jess, you've got to listen. What can I do to make you believe me?" She shook her head stubbornly, crossing her arms.

He gave her those big, beautiful eyes, which made her insides turn to mush.

Jess - although still fuming - cautiously brought her hand over to the man's chest, right below his burgundy bowtie.

Over on his left side, there was a steady beat. And on his right, another rhythm, the two hearts syncing together in a drum-like song.

"Oh my God. It's real. It's all real. Damn, you have no idea how long I've wanted to hear that," she whispered, as she brought her head down to listen. "Just ... beautiful."

"Jess," he said, holding her head in his hands, "I'm a long way away from home, and I'm going to need your help getting back."


	2. Chapter Two: The King of Okay

"Okay, so basically, you're from another dimension, and you somehow crossed, like, every other relevant reality and ended up here," Jess said, sipping her not-so-hot tea.

"Basically. It's just very spacey -"

"Wacey," Jess finished. "Wow, you _actually_ say that."

"How'd you know I said that?" the Doctor asked, perplexed.

"That television show? I guess that means I know almost _everything_ about you. Wow, sorry. That sounds _extremely_ stalker-ish." She smiled. "But, didn't you, like, seal the walls of the dimensions permanently in season - I mean, when you sent Rose away with the other Doctor that grew out of your hand?"

"Well - this is going to take some time to get used to," he said with a huff and a sad look in his eyes, "but yes. Or at least that's what I thought. I guess I only sealed off that one dimension. Or maybe not all of reality was in danger, and I sealed off the ones that were."

"So, does that mean that every television show is just another dimension? Like, Cas and Dean are actual people who are secretly madly in love, but in another dimension? And Sherlock is actually not dead? And you have aliens and foreign planets and the not-so-lost - oh ..."

"What? What's wrong?" he asked, setting down his mug.

"How old are you? Well, I'm guessing you're not as old as I know you to be, judging by your hair," she said, pointing to his head. He puffed his cheeks, letting the air out in one quick huff as to melodramatically disagree with her attitude.

"Nine-hundred and nine. Why?"

"I know your future. Not to sound like River Song, but I've seen things - terrible, and wonderful things - that happen so far away in the future, but as close as tomorrow. I've seen your darkest days, and most of your secrets. And I can't tell you anything. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Well, I guess I just won't think about it." He tried to smile, but instead, took a sip of his tea.

"Where's the TARDIS?" Jess asked, looking out the window. There was no sign of the beautiful blue box she'd fallen in love with.

"Out in the field. She's gone dim, but she's not dead, because I've been talking Russian for the past five minutes and you haven't noticed."

"Well, let's go then!" Jess said, grabbing her coat and running outside.

About a hundred feet beyond the stretch of woods cluttered in her backyard, Jess could see the blue police box standing tall and proud next to the old oak tree she used to play on as a child. On the days that were sunny, she'd go and read a book under its shade, or glance at the carvings she'd etched into its trunk. "Doctor", it said, in big bold letters, on every square inch of it.

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _who do I call_

 _when demons are running_

 _and angels all fall._

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _who will you be?_

 _Wandering with sorrow,_

 _flying with glee?_

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _hurry up, quick_

 _come fast or you'll miss 'em_

 _oh what a great trick._

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _how do I know_

 _that you'll come to save me_

 _even after the show?_

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _I think it's too late_

 _the demons are winning_

 _but I guess this is fate._

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _who do I call_

 _when you're somewhere else_

 _and there's nothing at all?_

 _Doctor, Doctor,_

 _what'll it be?_

 _I'm tired of waiting_

 _so come and save me._

"I never would have thought I'd ever see it in person," she murmured, astonished. The Doctor unlocked her doors, sighing. Jess scurried in, marveling the beauty that was the main control room.

"You weren't kidding when you said it was dark." The entire room was difficult to see, so the Doctor handed her a milky globe-like thing. He gave a knowing nod, and Jess threw it in the air, where it floated on the ceiling and illuminated the vast space.

"Gravity Globe. Always wanted to use one of those," Jess muttered, excitement visible in her tone.

"She's dying. There's something wrong - terribly wrong - with this dimension. Even the smell ..." the Doctor said, stroking the console. "Nothing feels right."

"Hey, Doctor," Jess said, picking up a cardigan. "Is this Amy's?"

"Uh, yes." Jess let out a squeal.

"They're _actually real_! Okay, Jessica. Calm down, you can do this," Jess muttered, with a strange look from the Doctor. "What. You're not the only person who's allowed to talk to themselves."

Jess's face suddenly dropped.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, putting his arm around her shoulder.

"It's _a lot_ to take in. I mean, what happened to Amy and Rory ... and poor Brian! Nine-hundred and nine, must've just dropped them off at their honeymoon. Oh, you haven't even met your Impossible Girl yet! Doctor, you're _so_ young, you have no idea. But _look at you_! The madman - sad man - with a blue box, finally falls out of the sky - yet again - after years of everyone waiting. You tend to do that to people, don't you? Make them wait." She sighed, like she was trying to remember something from her childhood, locked away in an unforgivable chest.

"I guess I do," he said, looking at her with those big, sad, old eyes of his. "Wait, did you say something happened to Amy and Rory?"

"It's - it's nothing. I swear. It won't happen for a _very_ long time. Trust me, you'll be okay. You're the king of okay." She lightly elbowed him in the ribs and gave him her warmest smile, in which he returned.

"So, what's wrong with her? Besides the fact that she's dying?" Jess asked, leaning against a tall column. She started to fiddle her thumbs nervously.

"I don't know. I've never seen a TARDIS do this before. It's weird; it's like there's _no time."_

"Can't you find a rift or something? I mean, if you got here, there's gotta be a way out. Right?"

"Not necessarily, no," the Doctor said, leaving with her, a weary expression carving his features. "But hopefully."


	3. Chapter Three: The Blue Letter Pt 1

"You know, if you're going to be here, you're gonna have to meet my mum," Jess mentioned, as they took a seat on the patio. The rain was fading, and the sun was seeping through the clouds.

"Why do I always have to put up with everyone's mothers?" he mumbled, mindlessly toying with his sonic screwdriver. Jess remembered all the times he encountered a companion's mother - not saying that _she_ was a companion, of course.

"You sure do have a lot of 'em, don't you, Doctor?" Jess said, looking up at one cloud that took the shape of a spaceship.

"A lot of what, exactly?" asked the Doctor, glancing over at her.

"Companions. I mean, I understand, a lonely Time Lord is a reckless one, but really? You get one every season - I mean, every other year or so," Jess explained.

"That's not true!" the Doctor argued. "I mean, sure, I like company, but you make me sound like - oh, I don't know - a human." Jess laughed.

"It's weird - not like you'd understand - but, I remember the first day I saw you," she said, looking back up at the sky, which was a dingy gray color. "I was still really upset about David - I mean, your former self, regenerating, but as soon as you said your first line, I fell in love with Eleven ... well, you, I guess. Wow, this is really weird saying it out loud." She let out a nervous laugh. "But, yeah, the Raggedy Doctor who fell out of the sky with his flaming blue box; and little Amelia Pond, the girl who waited, the girl who _will_ wait, for a little bit longer. And Rory Williams, the last Centurion, the boy who guarded the Pandorica for two thousand years. It's amazing, this face of yours, your eleventh. Gotta say, it's your best one so far." She smiled.

"For the first time in my life, I honestly have no idea what to say." They exchanged glances and laughed, for the Doctor - as they both knew - was a man of many, _many_ words.

 _Dum-dum-dum Da-dum-dum-dum-dum Dum-dum-dum Da-dum-dum-dum-dum,_ Jess's phone blared, playing the "I Am The Doctor" score (her favorite Murray Gold score).

"Nice ring tone," said the Doctor, jokingly.

"Oh, shut up, you ... derp," she retorted.

"Derp? Nine hundred years and nobody's ever said that to me." Jess rolled her eyes and answered the phone.

"Hello?" a familiar voice rang in her ear.

"Mum!" she said. " _Why're_ you calling?"

"Just wanted to tell you I got out of work early. Be home in ten." She glanced nervously at the Doctor.

"Hey, um, I actually have a - uh - tutor over, you know, one of the teachers from school, Mr. - uh - Smith," the Doctor pointed to himself in shock. _Yes, you,_ she mouthed.

"Oh, great," she said in a monotone. "Can't _wait_ to meet him!" Jess could hear the insolence in her tone and hastily hit the _end_ button.

"So, guess you're my tutor." The Doctor stood up and straightened his jacket.

"Oh, goody!" he said with a smile. "Does this mean I can go get my ' _Advanced Quantum Physics'_ book? I'd love to teach you the -"

"Not gonna happen. I'm fifteen, and the hardest class I'm taking is Calc, and I don't even really wanna learn _that_." He stuck out his tongue at her playfully, and she did the same. "And anyway, my head would probably explode if I thought about it more than I already do."

They walked back into the house, sitting down at the dining room table.

"Now, even though I talk about the show all the time, she doesn't really listen to a word I say, so don't worry about her finding out you're on TV. Or, at least, your other-dimension self is on TV. But, you might want to stay away from telling her you have two hearts, or that you're nine hundred years old, or that you're from a planet called Gallifrey, or that you've got a time-traveling police box called a TARDIS in my backyard."

The Doctor looked offended. "I'm a grown man, I think I understand the basics of ' _what not to tell people's mothers'."_ Jess gave him a disapproving look. "What? I think nine-hundred and nine is pretty grown up if you ask me," he huffed.

"Sure, Doctor," Jess murmured, to which he scoffed.

Just then, a sleek, silver car pulled into the driveway, which was their signal to pretend to be doing work.

As they entered the lounge, Melissa Bennett walked in, fancy pencil skirt and all.

"Hello! Mr. Smith, right?" Melissa greeted, shaking the Doctor's hand.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Bennett. Call me John," said the Doctor with a somewhat uncomfortable smile. Jess almost laughed; it wasn't unusual in the slightest for companions' mothers to hit on him. _Well, who could blame them,_ Jess thought to herself.

It was _still_ hard to process, that this wonderful, beautiful man was standing two feet away from her; touchable, _smell-able_ (and how gorgeous he smelled, weird enough to say; everything she'd imagine the Time Lord to smell like).

" _Miss,_ actually. And it's Melissa." _There was mum,_ Jess thought, _always hitting on unavailable men._ He was, as Jess recalled, married. Not just to River, but to Marilyn Monroe, also (and Queen Elizabeth I, but who was keeping track).

Jess sighed and glanced around the room. Sitting on the counter was a very aged envelope half torn, as if someone was about to open it but realized it wasn't theirs. She walked over to investigate.

In deep blue ink, the words _Jessica Rhiannon Bennett_ were written in a fast, tidy scrawl. Jess furrowed her eyes in confusion, as only a handful of people actually knew her middle name. She was about to tear it open, but then saw the words _DON'T OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER THE TWENTY-FIFTH_ in bold letters in the corner. She furrowed her brows in confusion, but hastily tucked the envelope in her back pocket.

"So, John, would you like to stay for dinner?" Melissa asked, stripping her jacket from her shoulders.

"I -" the Doctor began.

"I'm gonna go take a walk. _Mr. Smith,_ I think the lesson's done for today, don'tya think?" Jess interjected, while - subtly - nudging her shoulders in the direction of the TARDIS. The Doctor looked confused for a second, but then nodded comprehensively.

"Yes, I think I'll just be off. Nice meeting you, _Miss_ Bennett." He exited with a grin.

Jess stormed off in the other direction, taking the long way around. She noticed, then, how warm it was, and how unusual it was for it to _rain_ in the middle of December. It was _never_ warm in December. Funny, how strange things seemed to happen when the Doctor showed up.

Jess stepped into the TARDIS just as the sun called its last hurrah on the horizon, making the Earth turn a shade of brilliant orange. A thought occurred to her as she saw the blue box's exterior in perfect condition.

"Hey, Doctor," she called, as the strange man stuck his head up from below the engine.

"Jess, I advise you don't interrupt while I try to jump-start -" he began.

"She's not dying," Jess said. "The TARDIS isn't dying! Maybe asleep or something, but not dying. At least, not yet." The Doctor looked baffled.

"What do you mean, _she's not dying_? I think I'd know if my own TARDIS _wasn't dying_ ," he said, resting his hands on the floor and setting his sonic screwdriver down.

"When a TARDIS is dying, sometimes the whole 'it's bigger on the inside' thing seeps out onto the exterior." The Doctor nodded. "Well, Doctor, does she look like she's bigger on the outside?"

He ran over to the doors and checked that the blue box was indeed still smaller on the outside.

" _And,_ " she added, "you said you were speaking Russian. If she was dying, she would have to withhold all of the power she had left. Do you think she'd waste her energy on translating for a silly little girl like me? Of course not." She stretched her lips into a wide smile.

"Oh, Jessica." The Doctor grinned. "You're a genius."


	4. Chapter Four: Fantastically Impossible

"Hey, um, Doctor," Jess wheezed as he gripped her in an embrace.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, still smiling brightly.

"You know, I think I might have to tell my mom who you are," she called, as the Doctor scurried off. "I mean, if she sees me with you again, I'm afraid she's gonna think I'm having an affair with my so-called teacher or something."

"Affair?" he yelled. "You're fifteen! Who in their right mind would want to have an affair with a fifteen year old?" he said, running back up with some wire, his sonic, and a bunch of other _things_.

"Doctor," Jess said. "What're you doing?" she asked as he ran - and almost fell - down the steps that led to the engine.

"Trying to fix my TARDIS, what else?" he replied. Jess laid on her stomach and poked her head just beyond the mezzanine. He took some wire and fused it with his sonic onto the engine (or what Jess thought was the engine).

"I really miss this place," Jess started, turning on her back and looking up at the dome ceiling.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor said, flicking hair out of his eyes.

"The décor. This one was my favorite. Very - uh - retro."

Jess listened to the hum of the screwdriver for what felt like forever, until the Doctor let out a cry of joy.

"Finally! Okay, Jessica, step back. This might be very, um, wibbly," he said, as he connected the last wires. They were arranged in disarray, all leading up to the engine. It kind of reminded her of veins in a body all connecting to the heart, the center of most living masterpieces (unless, of course, they had _two_ hearts, which made it better all the more).

There was a crash, and sparks flew everywhere. The lights flickered, and the TARDIS woke up from her slumber. Both the Doctor and Jess smiled brightly, and he grabbed her in a quick embrace.

Jessica felt, for a moment, as if she was going to throw up. Her head seemed extremely heavy, and her palms were instantly clammy. Her heart rate quickened intensively, but it was all gone in a flash, and she couldn't remember why she'd grabbed her stomach in what seemed to be faux pain.

Suddenly, there was a loud _pop,_ and sparks shot out of the wires, the electricity visible. The Doctor hurried over and tried to fix it, but only ended up electrocuting himself.

The room grew dark. There was a _thud_ , and Jess tried to feel her way through the wires.

Lying at her feet was the Doctor, unconscious.

Panicking, she sat down next to him and slapped his cheeks, but to no avail. She bent down so her face was at his chest, looking for a pulse. Only his left heart was beating.

"Doctor! Doctor, you've gotta wake up," she yelled, looking around in the dark.

She could see the moonlight shining through the windows on the door, and, without thinking, grabbed his ankles and pulled him up the stairs and through the entrance.

Making sure she was far enough from the TARDIS and a bit past the entrance to the woods, she called for her mother.

"MUM! _MUM!_ GET _OUT_ HERE!" she screamed, tears blurring her vision. She knew too well that a Time Lord didn't last very long with only one heart. Although they looked human, there was very little human about them.

"What's going - oh my God." Melissa gasped, and knelt down next to the Doctor.

"Um," Jess stuttered, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Get me a pitcher of cold water," she demanded, with a quizzical expression from her mother. She obeyed, however, and ran back into the house.

"C'mon Doctor. Stay with me," she pleaded, giving up on trying not to cry.

"Here," Melissa said, handing Jess a bucket of ice-cold water. "What're you gonna do -" she began, but stopped mid-sentence as Jess poured the whole thing on the Doctor's face, drowning his features with ice.

"WOO!" he shouted, standing up immediately. "Oh, not again, my right one's stopped," he said, grabbing his right side in agony. " _How_ do you humans manage with just - ah! - just one heart?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "Don't just stand there, tell me how to fix it," she said, rolling up the sleeves to her sweater.

"Okay, hit me on the chest." Jess did as he said, but flinched when he screamed. "Back, back! Hit me on the back!"

After another minute of Jess hitting him, the Doctor stood up straight and shook out his limbs, giving her his goofiest smile.

"See? Never waste time on hugs." Jess scoffed.

"You idiot!" she said, punching him in the shoulder. "You half scared me to death!"

"I think I was the one dying, Jessica," he said. Jess gave up the _'I'm mad at you'_ façade and laughed.

"Jessica," Melissa said slowly. "What the _hell_ is going on?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"Mum!" Jess forgot she was standing there. "Uh ... there's no point in saying 'it's not what it looks like', because I have absolutely _no_ idea how it might look like at all ..." she said warily. She honestly had no idea what it might look like to someone who hadn't seen that kind of stuff before.

"Did you say ' _your right one stopped'_? As in a heart? On your right side?!" Melissa backed up, looking appalled. "And you said 'humans' as if you weren't one!"

Jess paused, then sighed. "Mum, you know that show I watch?" she asked, scratching the back of her neck.

"Maybe. The one with that hot guy from Harry Potter, right? What does that have to do with anything?" Melissa questioned.

"I think _this_ face is pretty hot, if I _do_ say so myself," muttered the Doctor, offended. Jess gave him a warning glare. "Sorry," he whispered.

"Well, this is him. Not David Tennant, this is the next regeneration of him ... from a different - uh - dimension," Jess said awkwardly. Her mother stared at her, wide-eyed.

"That's crazy! No, _John Smith_ , you're crazy! I bet that's not even your name! Oh, get out! Just get _out!_ " she shouted, pointing her finger to nowhere in particular.

"I'm not exactly anywhere to get out of," the Doctor retorted automatically, to which Jess lightly elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow, Jessica! I just got that one working."

"Sorry," Jess muttered, patting his shoulder.

" _Jessica Rhiannon Bennett,_ " her mother hissed furiously. "If you don't tell me what's going on _right this instant_ -"

"Okay, you don't want to believe me? Fine. I guess I'll just have to _show_ you that this man is the man I say he is," Jess said, running to the woods, through the clump of trees, and into the field, where the TARDIS was parked. Melissa and the Doctor followed.

Jess looked behind her in confusion, as she couldn't have dragged the Doctor _that_ far without getting tired. She brushed it off and kept walking.

"Keys," Jess said, holding out her hands. The silver felt heavy in her hands, as if their weight was scientifically impossible compared to the size.

"What's this?" Melissa demanded, looking skeptically at the blue box. "It's a phone box. What's so great about that?" Jess looked at the Doctor, and they shared a moment of giddiness.

"It's actually a _police_ box, mother." Jess momentarily fumbled with the key, but placed it in the lock and turned, entering her favorite form of transportation.

"Okay, ready?" she asked, sticking her head through the door. Melissa walked inside, eyes wide. She scurried back out, to see that, indeed, the box was smaller on the outside.

"But - how - what - it's -" Jess's mother couldn't find the right words.

"Amazing? Fantastic? Impossible?" Jess said, with a satisfied look on her face.

" _Wow_ ," was all she could say.

"I know," the Doctor whispered.

Jess started to rub her eyes, then again, then yawned. Still star struck, her mother grabbed her and said, "I think it's time for bed."

"No." She scratched her eye again.

"I think I have to go, too," the Doctor said, pointing at his TARDIS.

"No," Jess muttered. "You shouldn't have to sleep in there. Come stay in the guest room for the night." The Doctor shook his head.

She sighed. "I've got a fez and some Jammie Dodgers," she said temptingly.

He looked indecisive for a second. "Oh, alright!" he said with a grin.

"You're _such_ a goof," Jess murmured.

"I know." His smile grew wider.

She rolled her eyes and they headed back to the house, glancing at the stars on their way. And for a second, a mere sliver of a moment, it seemed as if the whole universe was getting ready for something big. Something life-changing. Something deadly.


	5. Chapter Five: Don't Ever Change

_Doo-wee-ooo doo-wee-ooo._

Jess's eyes popped open to the sound of her phone blaring the _Doctor Who_ theme song, which was her cue to wake up.

"Oi! Turn that down," a familiar voice rang from down below.

Jess sighed in reassurance. _It wasn't a dream,_ she thought excitedly. _He's real. He's here._

She pulled the covers off her legs and ran downstairs - hair disheveled and breath still morning-like - to be met with the Doctor himself.

"Geez, you look terrible," he muttered. Jess rolled her eyes.

"So," she said playfully, "don't like your own theme song?"

He looked baffled. "Theme song? You mean, that was _my_ theme song?" He plastered on a grin.

"Sure was." She smiled, too.

Jess looked around the lounge, inferring her mother had left early for work.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?" she asked. _Knowing him,_ she thought, _he probably hasn't slept in the last decade._

"Nope," he said with a smirk. "I was too busy thinking."

"About what?"

"So, this _show_ of mine. What's it called?" he asked, averting the question completely.

"Uh, Doctor Who," Jess said while stepping into the kitchen. The smell of pancakes and eggs felt like a slap in the face, along with waffles, bacon, and freshly-brewed tea.

"Did you say -"

"Doctor!" Jess, gasped, taking in everything he had done. "You made all this?"

"Well, yeah," he beamed.

"I'm only one person. How am I supposed to eat all this -" she glanced at the clock, "in fifteen minutes?" He looked at her quizzically.

"What do you mean, fifteen minutes?" he said as she rushed upstairs, taking her hair out of its messy plait and brushing her teeth.

"I've got school!" she called back, holding up two different jumpers in front of the mirror. One was 'Keep Calm and Don't Regenerate', and the other was the Van Gogh painting of the exploding TARDIS.

"Which one, Doctor?" she asked, standing in the doorway, - a bit of toothpaste on the corner of her lips - holding them both up for him to see.

"Is it really possible to keep calm while doing anything that involves me, Jessica?"

She looked back at the 'Keep Calm' one and smiled. "Regeneration it is. Today's the twenty-third, yeah? Two more days till Christmas!"

A frown pulled at Jess's lips. _Two more days till your time._ She threw the crimson colored fabric over her head, hoping he didn't notice her worrying expression.

Pulling her flimsy fandom gummy bracelets up her wrist, she sped downstairs and took a bite of waffle, sipped her tea, and grabbed her deep blue backpack, slinging it over her shoulder hurriedly.

"Okay, Doctor, don't go running off. I'll be back at three." She kissed him quickly on the cheek, to which he blushed. "Call me if anything goes up in flames." She turned back around. "You know what, _don't_ call me if anything goes up in flames." She walked through the doorway, but poked her head around the wood. "Oh, and uh, don't break my Dalek." She gave him a firm look and began her on-foot journey to school.

While in that dismal place everyone hated to go, she worried constantly about the Time Lord at home. She hoped he didn't look through her Tumblr - oh how embarrassing that would be - or watch any episodes beyond season five (as he hadn't lived beyond that, or at least that's what she thought, based on the floppy-ness of his hair and the pure giddiness in his tone). If he read _any_ of her fan-fictions dedicated to him, she felt she'd die of embarrassment.

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, when Jess was as tired as a fifteen-year-old could be in the middle of a school day (and a Friday, for that matter), the intercom announced for "Jessica Bennett, come to the office immediately". It sounded urgent, and Jess could feel the blood drain from her face as she carefully strolled down the main corridor and into the main office, where the Doctor was sitting as still as he could (which wasn't very still at all), a pile of disarray papers left to sit in the corner.

Jess's eyes widened in complete astonishment. "Doctor," she hissed, sitting down in the chair next to him, "what are you doing here?"

"I may have, well ... I may have - accidentally - broke your Dalek. And that shelf over here." He looked over at the broken plastic guiltily, as Jess tried to swallow her impatience. She just then remembered who she was talking to, and laughed. To someone other than her, it - may have - sounded maniacal, but she didn't care.

Her joy was clouted off her face as she asked, "Not my special-edition 50th Anniversary British flag Dalek, right?" She'd acquired it in November, a 'Day of the Doctor' present to herself. It was her favorite, and the most valuable thing she owned.

"No. Your alarm clock one. It started _beeping_ so I pointed my sonic at it and it kind of -" he paused, as if what he was about to tell her would cost him his life, " _-_ exploded."

" _Exploded?_ You're kidding me."

"Miss Bennett," the school secretary - Mrs. Andrews - called, staring at her with those fierce, yellow eyes beyond those horn-rimmed glasses that reminded Jess of a hawk staring at its prey.

"Um," she gulped. "Yes?"

"Who is this man? He's been here for the past ten minutes and all he's been is a _nuisance_." Jess turned and looked at the Doctor.

She walked over there, leaning forward over the counter and whispered, "Sorry, he's my uncle, mom's brother. Staying over for the holidays. He's kind of -" she looked back, and the Doctor was trying to fix the flower pot he just knocked over, "- crazy, if you get what I mean. You know how that is. Do you mind if I bring him back home? It's the last day before break, s'not like I'm missing anything, right?"

Mrs. Andrews glanced back over to the Doctor and visibly shuddered. "Go on ahead, just don't bring him back." Jess grabbed the Doctor by the hand and led him out the doors.

" _Don't_ move. 'Kay? I have to go get my bag."

The Doctor gave her an impatient look, and muttered, "You're treating me like I'm _five_ , Jessica."

Jess rolled her eyes. "You're _acting_ five, Doctor."

With that, Jess dashed through the double-doors and up the flight of stairs to get to her locker - a tiny little thing at the corner of the hall - and when she returned, the Doctor was nowhere to be found.

"Doctor? Doctor!" she called - adjusting the strap of her bag onto her shoulder hastily - and sauntered around the strip of forest next to the building. She peered beyond the tufts of bare tree bark, and a green light was glowing a bit off into the distance, so she strolled towards it.

"Are you sonicing a ... cat?" Jess questioned, glancing at the furry ginger ball of fluff surrounded by screwdriver-light.

"I think he likes it," he said with a satisfied smile.

"Don't you speak feline?"

"I speak everything," he boasted, tucking his sonic into his coat pocket and turning to face her. "But it's mostly telepathic with mammals such as the cat and other animals-" Jess cut him off with a glare.

"C'mon. Better get back before it gets cold out."

But it never did get cold. The walk home was fair (it couldn't be below fifty degrees), and the wind was at a bare minimum. Jess asked the Doctor about this as they arrived at the cream-colored front porch.

"I crash-landed here. Which, if I'm correct, then you'll remember this from when you saw it last time with the Cybermen and the Daleks, means that the bubble - it's not a bubble, but call it a bubble - around this universe has cracked. All of time and space is bleeding through the cracks, and that's why the whole climate is rapidly increasing," he explained.

Jess nodded her head and turned her key in the lock fastened onto the door. "So, if you don't fix it soon -"

"The entire universe will implode on itself, yes."

"That's what I was afraid to hear." Jess opened the door and took off her sneakers, setting her bag down in the mud-room.

"And why's that?"

"In order for you to fix it, you'd have to close off this dimension permanently. I'd never see you again." Jess looked down at her sock-clad feet, disappointment drowning her eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey." The Doctor delicately lifted her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. "You know me, probably better than any human in all of time and space." He took her in an embrace. "Would I ever do that to you?"

Jess smiled and gripped him tight. "No, no you wouldn't."

 _But you would,_ she thought, _if you had to choose between them or me. Because you always choose them. That's just who you are, Doctor. That's how you'll always be. Saving the humans, leaving the girls behind. You think you're saving us, too, but really, you're just doing the opposite._

"Doctor?" Jess muttered, breaking the contact.

"Yes?"

"Please, for the sake of every universe in existence, don't ever change."


	6. Chapter Six: Imaginary Or Not

The smell of fish sticks in the oven made Jess's stomach growl in longing; she hadn't eaten them in ages. But, as the Doctor was present (and it was, of course, his favorite food), she'd made them especially for him.

Listening to the _pitter-patter_ of footsteps galloping down the stairs, she turned and smiled at the Doctor, leaning her elbows behind her torso onto the counter. He stripped off his tweed jacket hastily, doing a little twirl in the process. He gave a visible sniff and stared wringing his hands impatiently, bending his head down so he was at the same height as the oven.

"Are you making fish fingers?" he asked, his lips outstretched into a wide smile.

"You're an alien, yet you're just _so British_ ," Jess proclaimed, giggling.

The Doctor would have come up with some snarky remark if he wasn't so content. Besides the danger of the universe he was currently in ceasing to exist, the Doctor didn't have any complications. Amy and Rory were safe, – for now, or at least that's what Jess had said – he no longer had to worry about his own universe ending, and there seemed to be no extraterrestrial beings (besides him, of course) in that particular dimension.

"Doctor?" Jess asked, waving her hand in front of his face. He seemed to be in a trance – his lips scrunched up and his hands aimlessly stirring by his side – or perhaps that was just his thinking posture.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. What were you saying?"

"Well, you see – there's this ... _Christmas-y thing_ tonight, and I wasn't really planning on going, but my friend has been pestering me since she planned it – and I was wondering if _you_ wanted to go. But you don't have to! I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine." She hid her face behind her long sweater sleeves as she said it, her face turning a bright shade of pink.

"Will there be dancing?" he asked, a slightly mischievous grin spreading across his face.

"Unfortunately so," Jess remarked.

The Doctor questioningly rose his brow. "'Unfortunately'?"

"Doctor, I've seen you at Amy and Rory's wedding countless times. Let's just say that you're _slightly_ embarrassing company."

The Doctor brushed it off with a laugh, immediately second-guessing his naïve acceptance towards the fact that Jess had witnessed practically his whole life; watched his best days and his worst days, watched him laugh and watched him cry. It was somewhat unsettling to him that she was more willing to converse with his older self, the one full of mysteries and sorrow – or so, it seemed – rather than the happier, more childlike version of the Doctor.

"What's it like?" he blurted, regretting the sentence instantly.

"What's what like?" Jess turned her head towards the Doctor, her frizzy, mud-brown curls resting solemnly on her shoulder. She could sense the tension in his words, his eyes like pools of misery and his face wrinkled in grief.

"Meeting me. I mean, you've spent all of this time believing I was _truly_ fictional, and then one day – completely out of the blue – here we are." His eyes wandered towards the floor as he spoke, as if meeting Jessica Bennett was as dangerous as it was exhilarating.

"It's funny, really, that you ask that," she said, sitting down on one of the few three-legged chairs placed under the island, "because I've been wondering the same thing. What _is_ it like, meeting you? There's no proper word – at least, not in the English language, I believe – that can fully explain what's happening." She fiddled her thumbs as she rambled on, the smell of fish fingers becoming stronger.

"In the first few years of being introduced to you, I'd constantly look outside my window to see if you'd finally come to save me from myself and everyone around me. My dad left, my mom was slowly slipping away, I had no friends – or, at least, no real friends that actually gave a damn about me or anything that I was involved with – but then there was you: that funny alien with the weird accent and that shining blue box that could go anywhere imaginable. You were different. I was different. You were my rock, and you were the only thing keeping me stable.

"But you were fake. You were supposed to be a story, just a little myth that had no truth. I fantasized travelling with you and knew deep down that it was never possible, but as long as you stayed imaginary, I could never lose you. So, now that you're here, standing in front of me, there is every possibility that you'll be gone from my life for good, and most likely very soon.

"Nevertheless, when I saw that blue box of yours, Doctor, I felt like that little six-year-old Jessica Walden, with a dad and a mum and not a care in the world." She opened her mouth as if to speak further, but quickly decided against it as the oven beeped noisily, making both Jess and the Doctor jump a bit.

"You changed your name." It wasn't a question, just a stray thought wandering through the Doctor's mind as he pondered everything he'd just heard.

Jess snatched the tray from the oven, skimming her finger along the hot metal as she dropped it onto the counter. She didn't think about the dull sting it left on her skin as she answered.

"Yeah. My dad was gone, so why keep his last name around to haunt me?" She sighed faintly. "I traded _Walden_ for _Bennett_ , and when I did, my mother and I made a silent agreement on the fact that my dad was gone, and he wasn't coming back."

Just then, in that tiny moment between gloomy breaths, the Doctor did what doctors are meant to do: make people better. So, with a bright smile and an enthusiastic gleam in his eye, the Doctor threw on his jacket, took a bite of a fish stick, and tried his best to make his new friend feel spectacular.

"C'mon then, Jessica Bennett. We've got a _thing_ to attend."


	7. Chapter Seven: Wardrobe Predicaments

Jess simply couldn't get used to the idea that the TARDIS was actually real. Like, really real. Actually, physically, _real_. Never mind get used to the size of the thing. It was _enormous_. Completely infinite. Nothing compared to TV.

Although she almost got lost in the endless corridors, Jess was in heaven. She wanted to take pictures of everything and flaunt them off on Tumblr, but she knew she'd get in heaps of trouble – or, nobody would believe her, which seemed more likely.

"Wardrobe ... wardrobe ... wardrobe ..." she muttered to herself, crossing her fingers as she opened another door.

And at last, she found it. The gigantic hall filled to the brim with a trillion different fabrics. Clothes for men, women, humanoids, non-humanoids, parties, dances, galas, weddings, get-togethers, future places, past places, foreign entertainment, _anything_. It was everything she could imagine, and she didn't have a clue where to start.

She thought about something practical to wear to a Christmas party: Jeans? A skirt? What kind of top?

Seeing that rational thinking wasn't working, she roamed instead. The first thing that caught her eye was a long, flowing, magenta gown, with a medieval-like collar and bursts of faint light travelling in various highways, resembling veins.

 _Too alien_ , she thought, letting the silky fabric fall between her fingers.

What she found next was more out-of-the-ordinary, but that didn't stop her from admiring the wrap-around fabric that took the form of the sea – _and the smell, too_ , she thought, bringing it to her nose. It smelled like this one tiny beach she used to visit when she was little, with a rusty swing set and a fire pit never with any fire. It was right beyond her grandparents' summer cottage (although they'd lived in it year-'round). When they died, Melissa sold it to pay for the mortgage, and other things a single mom couldn't afford on her own.

Jess never went to the beach again.

She found only ten suitable outfits in the crammed abundance. Two were immediately thrown back into a disarray pile in the nearest corner because they wouldn't seem to fit, one was far too showy to go anywhere near another form of life, and four more were discarded because they weren't appropriate for her century. Now, she had three to choose from.

As she'd decided on wearing a dress – and, having shaved her legs in a super awkward shower the night before only increased her chances of not looking horrible – one more flew behind her.

That left two.

The first one was a lime green color, with tattered edges and a chevron pattern around the waist. A thick strap held it up, but she was worried about the length. It fell an entire six inches above her knee.

Jess was always insecure, ever since she learned what the word meant. She liked to wear normal things, like jeans and sweats and tees, because she was afraid of what she'd look like if she didn't wear those things.

She never wore anything above her ankles because of the thickness of her thighs. She never wore open-toed shoes because of her weird looking toes. She never liked to put her hair up, because she was afraid her face would look too fat without her messy curls. She wouldn't wear tank tops alone, and she definitely didn't wear bathing suits.

Jess was always insecure. But not today.

She threw the lime green dress aside and held the crimson one up to her body, admiring everything about it. Although there were no straps (her breasts would just have to make do), everything else was flawless. She didn't even bother sucking her gut in as she pulled it over her head.

She peeled off her jeans and pulled the dress down to her knees, sauntering bare-foot towards the closest mirror. She twirled and watched the material swish mesmerizingly.

There wasn't anything special about this particular dress – there were no patterns or any accessories that came with it – it was absolutely simple, but beautiful nonetheless. _And that's the best kind of beauty_ , she thought, _simplicity_.

Now that she'd found the perfect dress, she needed shoes. Converse wouldn't work, and she was definitely _not_ getting into a pair of heels. Too cold for sandals, and flats hurt her feet.

Jess balanced on her tiptoes to see if she could find a shoe section or something.

She chuckled to herself; she felt like she was at the mall, hanging on the racks and trying on everything out of her budget range.

After quite a bit of crawling over piles of clothes, she reached a half-opened cupboard with a combat boot sticking out. She took it out and looked at it skeptically, then held it against her dress.

 _Maybe I could pull it off_ , she slipped her foot inside, _with a smile, and a hell of a lot of willpower._

She opened the door all the way, tossing mismatched shoes behind her hurriedly. She went to check her phone, but realized it was in her jeans pocket, which was all the way across the room. She groaned, staring up at the gravity bulb hanging from the domed ceiling, illuminating the entire hall.

She hoped she wouldn't be late for Elaine's party. In fact, if she didn't find the matching boot right then, she'd have gone to her house with only one shoe.

She zipped them up, glanced in the mirror one last time, gathered her clothes, and dashed out of the room, maneuvering through a million corridors and stepping foot on solid ground once again.

Running up the stairs as fast as she could, she dumped her previous attire in her laundry and sped down to the lounge, where the Doctor was looking the same as he did an hour before, but instead of his normal burgundy bowtie, he was sporting a navy blue one.

"Hm," the Doctor murmured, probably just for Jess' amusement, a grin spreading across his face. "Nice look."

Jess's face turned red with embarrassment, and she slightly placed her hands on her stomach self-consciously.

A look of confusion crossed his face for a fraction of a second, but the two of them pretended that nothing was wrong.

"So," Jess said, breaking the soon-to-be-awkward silence. "What's the plan?"

"What plan?" the Doctor asked, pushing himself off the sofa.

"To get there? I mean, we no longer have a properly functioning time machine, and I've only got my learners permit – and yes, you're far beyond twenty-one, but still, I don't have a car." She realized how much she didn't think this over and mentally smacked herself in the face.

"Who said we needed a car?" His face lit up like the Christmas tree behind him, and he sprinted out the back door. Jess followed, sticking her head beyond the entrance of the TARDIS. A _vroom_ ing noise blasted throughout the control room, and the Doctor skidded to a stop in front of her, his leg swinging over the seat of the bike and a helmet in his hand.

She laughed.

"We're taking this to a party?" she questioned, incredulously.

"Of course. What's cooler than a motorbike?" She strapped the helmet to her head and rolled her eyes.

"Nothing, I suppose," she answered, moving her leg around the seat and wrapping her arms around his waist.

He started the bike, and with a short laugh, he bellowed, "Geronimo!"


	8. Chapter Eight: Elaine Harper

Riding on a motorcycle was like flying. Having her arms wrapped around the Doctor and her head resting on his back was like walking on clouds. Put those two together and Jess was feeling absolutely marvelous.

Every once in a while, the Doctor interrupted her peaceful silence and asked where to turn or when to stop. She'd softly answer him, and then rest her head back on his shoulder. She'd close her eyes for a second, listening to the wind whistling in her ears and the passing cars zooming by.

Driving across town only took a few minutes, but Jess felt like they were zigzagging through the streets for an eternity before the Doctor pulled up to the Harper estate, huge and white and immaculate.

There were no cars parked in the driveway – except for Elaine's, who'd gotten her license a month prior – so Jess reached her hand in the Doctor's pocket and pulled out her phone (which she'd put in there at a stop sign, remembering that she had no pockets herself), double-checking to see that the time did indeed read _6:37_.

 _That's weird_ , she thought. Mostly everyone that Elaine knew could drive – and had their own cars – so why would it be empty?

She shrugged, taking off her helmet and shuffling her way over to the freshly-painted double doors.

"So," the Doctor muttered, his eyes scanning the vast property. "This is – whose party again?"

"Elaine," she responded, pushing the doorbell. "Elaine Harper."

Even through the thick wood, Jess could hear the _click click click_ of stilettos skipping towards them. She wondered what she'd be wearing.

"Mike, I thought you said – oh! Jessica, honey, you're very - uh, red? But nevermind, why have I never seen you in a dress before?"

She said it like Jess was a model, or someone famous, but the novelty of the dress was starting to wear thin, so she just crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"You wear enough dresses for the both of us, thank you very much." Elaine chuckled and opened the door entirely to let them in.

"Is it cancelled? Or am I actually early?" Jess mumbled, sauntering into the kitchen and plucking a grape from a bowl. Elaine laughed.

"No, no, everyone's got their own thing to attend for the moment, so –" She was cut off by a loud chime.

"If that's Mike, I swear ..." she said, stomping in the stranger's direction.

"Who's Mike?" Jess's eyebrows rose skeptically, and Elaine lightly smacked her shoulder teasingly.

"Just some guy," she replied, answering it.

It was the pizza deliverer.

"Doesn't sound like _'just some guy'_."

Elaine scoffed and gave the girl a twenty. "Shut up, Bennett. So, who's _this_ guy?" The Doctor looked around the lounge like he wasn't listening.

"That doesn't matter – did you get two pizzas just for yourself?"

The Doctor smirked, and raised his arm. "I'm –"

"Uh," Jess interjected, thrusting her hand onto the Doctor's mouth. "Can I talk to you about that?" she said to Elaine, letting her arm drop to her side.

"Whoa there, Nelly, you're making my head spin."

Jess's eyebrows shot up.

"Fine, yeah. I've got to do your hair anyway, it looks like you've been in a fight with a lion."

"Oh, thanks," Jess mumbled, her fingers immediately trying to untangle the knots.

"I guess I'll just stay here then," the Doctor said, melodramatically. "I suppose I could watch the sun set ..."

"It won't take long. I mean –" she looked at Elaine, "it won't, right?"

"Whatever makes your little heart happy." She hooked her arm in Jess's and dragged her up the winding steps, playfully shoving her into her room.

"So seriously," Elaine said, sitting down on her bed. She tapped the spot in front of her, and Jess climbed up. "Who is that guy down there? He looks older than your mom."

Jess rolled her eyes, and began to wonder if she'd always rolled her eyes so much.

"Everyone looks older than my mom," she stated, reaching across the bed for a brush.

"True." Elaine grabbed the plastic from her and tugged through Jess's hair violently.

Jess winced and whimpered as Elaine combed, pulled, twisted, and applied various hair products to her now-tame mane. She went to get up and look in one of Elaine's many mirrors, but she yanked her back over. Standing up and flattening out her black-and-white striped skirt, she opened a few cabinets and pulled a few drawers, adding things to a growing collection on her mattress.

"You still haven't told me who that guy is," Elaine said, flipping her long, golden locks behind her shoulder. "So, we'll be here until you fess up."

She held up a bottle of nail polish, the same exact shade as Jess's dress.

She groaned.

Elaine kept bugging her to sit still as she was treated like a dress-up doll. After the second coat of nail polish was applied, Jess mustered up the courage to say something.

"Aren't your friends going to be weird about just walking into your house if you're not there?"

"Nah," Elaine said, blowing a burst of cold air onto Jess's fingers. "They're wild dogs, they don't believe in manners." She let her hands fall onto the bed. "So. Guy. Tell me."

"What would you like to know?"

Elaine stopped what she was doing and pretended to think about it. "His name, perhaps? Where he came from? Jesus, Jess, you never keep things from me."

She looked at the crimson lacquer and thought about what she should admit. Although she tried not to think about it, Elaine was right: Jess never kept secrets. Secrets other than her fandoms, which were completely confidential.

And it had always been that way, ever since she started high school. Meeting Elaine – the most energetic social butterfly anyone could imagine – was like breaking out of her shell. Elaine wasn't like those obnoxious wealthy people that didn't give a damn about anyone – hell, she always had something interesting to say about _everybody_ – she was sincere and had an open mind about everything.

"His name's the Doctor –"

"What kind of name is that?" Elaine interjected absentmindedly, reaching behind her and seizing a small rectangular box.

"I would tell you if you stopped interrupting," Jess complained lightheartedly. Elaine stuck her tongue out, but Jess went on.

"You know that show I like, right? The one with the alien and the blue box –"

"Yeah, yeah. The hot British guy that doesn't die, like in every one of your goddamn shows – oh, I'm doing it again. I'm sorry, go on." Elaine gave a weird smile, which caused both of the girls to chuckle.

"So – this is gonna sound like I'm on something, but I'm telling the truth here – the main character, the Doctor, happened to crash land his time machine in my backyard."

Jess closed her eyes and waited for Elaine to laugh, or yell, or do anything. But she just sat and stared blankly.

She opened her eyes, and Elaine was coming at her with a small brush.

"What are you doing? Don't you think I'm crazy?" Jess asked, leaning away from her hand.

"No. Well, I think you're a bit crazy anyway, so that doesn't really make a difference to the overall situation. You like this guy – trust me, I can tell – I just want to make you look presentable."

"I don't _like_ him," Jess retorted, unsure of what Elaine meant by "like". "I mean, yeah, he's interesting, and saves planets for a living, and I've known him my entire life, but I don't _like_ him. Not like that. Anyway, he's married."

Elaine's eyes bulged dramatically. "He's _married_? Oh my god, Jess, what the hell."

"No –" she didn't mean for it to come out that way. "Yes, he's married, but not yet – I mean, he's married, but ... dammit, Elaine, this is so complicated. Time travel will be the death of me."

Elaine laughed at her struggle. "So, you're saying that this guy – _the Doctor_ – is a time traveler, but you know his future? Or is he from the past?"

Jess nodded her head. "Kind of, yeah."

"Good. Now, stop moving."

"Wait, what is that?" Jess questioned, staring at the skin-colored powder.

Elaine made an ' _are you kidding me?'_ face. "It's foundation. Are you sure you're a girl?"

Jess rolled her eyes – again – and relaxed her entire body, letting Elaine continue to paint her face with different colors.

Elaine didn't make her say much more, but when she was done and Jess looked in the mirror was she really speechless.

She looked completely different: her hair was braided and frizz-less, her lips looked full and her teeth looked whiter (how this was possible, she did not know), her skin was even in color, and her eyes were framed with variations of browns and black.

"See? This is what you look like when you wear a dress. Don't you feel pretty?" Elaine's fingers were wrapped around her waist in a hug, her head resting on her shoulder.

She smiled.

For once in a very long time, Jess felt pretty.


	9. Chapter Nine: The Party and The Attic

One thing was for sure: Elaine's comparison about teenagers and wild dogs was quite accurate. As Jess followed her friend's loud footsteps throughout the confusion, she could hear – and _feel_ – the intense music overpowering all of the shouts and chants and other nonsense teenagers usually got around to at parties.

Plastic, red cups littered the mansion. Small items of clothing were strewn over furniture. Some guy in his underwear was trying – and failing – to climb the twelve-foot-tall Christmas tree decorated ornately in the center of the main lounge. It was as if someone reset their minds to zero, and the only instincts they had were destruction and idiocy.

"So," Jess said, her forearms crossing at her rib cage, "this is what your parties look like."

Elaine's steely eyes dazzled in sarcastic delight. "Isn't it just beautiful?"

Jess couldn't stop the small laugh that burst through the deafening noise. "Totally, yeah."

She tucked a stray piece of hair behind Jess's ear. "Do you want anything? Beer? Champagne? A juice box?"

"Would the juice be alcoholic?"

"I'm afraid so."

Jess smiled and shook her head. "Nah, I'm good. I think I'm gonna go find out where the Doctor's been hiding ..." her voice trailed off as she carefully stepped away, the pack of juniors making an infinite maze around her.

It didn't take long to find him sitting alone in an abandoned part of the house. As Jess removed the large poster of a famous boy from a British-pop band, the small, square door brought back memories of her first visit to Elaine's place – without the teenagers and the loud music, that is. She turned the knob delicately, almost sure she wouldn't find the Doctor in there, but, of course, she was wrong.

As she crawled through the short hall and up the crowded stairs, she found it intriguing that he stood out more than anyone she'd ever known. His tweed jacket pooled behind him, his red suspenders vibrant in a room full of dull color. He was like a sign that blinked fluorescent lights and read _"Look at me! I'm worthy of attention!"_

"Hey," she said, fixing the hem of her dress as she sat next to the Doctor, her head bowed in an attempt not to hit it on the ceiling.

"Hey," he repeated, fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. She realized how out of place this was for him. From the wild party, to the dusty – and secret, although nothing's very secret around the Doctor – attic, to the alcohol placed in every liquid.

"Did you dance?" she asked in an attempt to make conversation. Being a full-time fangirl whose only needs were a laptop, wifi, and fast-food, she never really was the person to go to in terms of small talk.

"Nah, I didn't – _oh_!" His eyes finally met hers, and he struggled to get up – bumping his head in the process. "Wow – your face is ... different. But a good way different!"

Jess could feel the blood rush to her cheeks as the Doctor nervously wrung his hands.

"Yeah, um, thanks – I think."

She could automatically feel the regret bubbling up in her chest. She hated make-up. She never wore it, and she didn't really ever want to. Although she never judged anyone who _did_ wear it, her personal belief was that make-up was a lie. That people painted their faces everyday so that they could feel more accepted in a strict community full of liars and thieves who only wanted money and others' pride. That this world she lived in was so corrupt – so broken – that people had to wear a different face in order to go outside.

And the fact that _she_ felt more acceptable with it on made her want to throw up.

Jess only looked up when her neck began to ache.

"Do you want to –" the Doctor said, interrupting the silence.

"Yes."

She didn't care what it was the Doctor was about to ask her; she'd go anywhere. She needed to get out of this stuffy, pale room and away from the pounding of the music. Although Elaine was into this stuff, Jess really had no interest in partying whatsoever.

"O ... kay. We could go back to the TARDIS – ooh, maybe the design palate still works; you could create your own room!" He smiled and bumped his head on the ceiling again.

"I actually really need to go outside. Like, now." Jess's eyes were staring straight at the tiny window just behind the Doctor.

"Sure, sure," he said, putting his hand above him as to not hit it again. "I'll be waiting by the motorbike; whenever you're ready."

He put the sonic back in his pocket and picked up his coat. Jess watched his shoes as he walked down the stairs, giving space between him and her.

When she got back to Elaine's room, she sat down on the lime green comforter, laying back on her panda pillow and gazing at the glow-in-the-dark stars hanging from the plaster. Jess lost count of how many times she looked up at those stars and wished to see the real thing up close.

She took a long breath. Elaine's room smelled like mangoes, she presumed. As did everything else she owned. Jess grazed her hand over the blanket, feeling the soft fabric between her fingers. She closed her eyes and imagined her first visit to the Harper estate, how small she felt in comparison to everything else.

 _"C'mon," Elaine said, nudging my shoulder gently. My stomach did somersaults in such a way I was afraid my insides would fall apart. The house was ginormous from the outside; I couldn't imagine what it was like inside._

 _"My family won't bite, I swear. Well, Charlie might, if you get too close ..." Elaine teased, dragging me through the door frame._

 _My pulse quickened and a large lump formed in my throat. Standing before me was a tall, thin man in a button-down and slacks, clean-shaven and graying. A bit behind him was a woman with golden hair like Elaine's, and copper eyes like her son's, who was clinging to her leg and burying his face into her thigh. He turned around and looked up at me; he couldn't have been any older than seven._

 _"Mom, Dad, Charles," Elaine said in her sophisticated voice, "this is Jessica. She'd rather be called Jess. She's shy, so I'll do most of the talking. We're gonna go upstairs. No funny business, I swear," she said, her finger tracing an_ x _over her heart. They were about to say something, but Elaine was already gone._

 _"I'll even keep the door open if it makes you feel any better!" she called as her arm tugged mine up two flights of stairs._

 _"What did you mean, 'funny business'?" I asked, taking a seat on the corner of her bed._

 _"My parents suspect I'm a lesbian. That's only half-true, of course, but I love messing with them." She threw a giant forest-green sweater over her head and messily braided her hair._

 _I had absolutely no problem with what she'd confessed, in fact,_ I _was still questioning myself. But having my life revolve around my internet friends, about 99.5% of them weren't straight._

 _We didn't discuss any further on that subject._

 _"Okay, so the reason you're here with my awkward parents and my weird brother is because – well, just watch."_

 _She walked over to a poster and tore it off, placing it on her bed so it wouldn't rip._

 _"Harry Styles," I interjected. "Really?"_

 _"The one and only."_

 _"I would have expected better from you."_

 _She turned around, hands on her hips. "Are you insulting the sexiest man on Earth?"_

 _I shook my head and smiled._

 _Behind the poster was a small, square door, with a short knob as to not stick out when the poster was covering it. She opened the door and crawled in, her shorts barely covering the place where pants are supposed to cover._

 _"C'mon, then, Jessie!" she called, beginning to crawl up some steps._

 _"Don't call me that!" I shouted back. I could hear her distant laugh from above._

 _I crouched in front of the door, moving first my left hand, then my right leg, then my right hand and my left leg. This thinking process went on for a bit as I slowly made my way down the claustrophobic-inducing corridor._

 _What laid before me wasn't what I'd expected. There were little brass trinkets and old manila envelopes scattered everywhere, a luggage chest and an empty pitcher in the corner. Cobwebs lined the walls, and the ceiling barely allowed me to sit up straight._

 _"This house belonged to my great-grandfather. Everything was renovated except for this very room. Call me crazy, but when I'm up here all alone, with my phone as the only light source, I feel like a giant. You know what I mean?"_

 _I grabbed the hem of my shirt, fiddling it between my forefinger and thumb. It was true, I felt like a giant in this room too. "Yeah. I know what you mean."_

Jess got up from the bed and walked out the door. She made her way through the slurring party, quick to dash before someone stopped her.

Waiting for her was the Doctor, loud as always, but silent nonetheless.

"C'mon, I've had enough human contact to last me an entire lifetime," she said, strapping the helmet at her chin.

"Yeah," he replied. "I know what you mean."


	10. Chapter Ten: Argumentative Affiliations

Jess knew that walking through the front door was a mistake as soon as she heard the piercing shrieks of her mother.

" _Where the hell have you been?_ " she seethed, slamming the door behind the Doctor.

"I was – um – we were –" Jess stammered, her mind going blank. She felt her stomach nestle into the tight crevice that was her throat.

"We were at a – um ... party, at Elaine Harper's house." The Doctor's eyes dared not meet Melissa's in fear that she might set him aflame with the absolute fury trembling through her.

"I wasn't asking you! _You!_ " she screamed, jabbing her finger into the Doctor's chest. "I don't want _you_ anywhere _near_ my daughter again, do you hear me? _You_ keep causing trouble for _everybody_! You – you _madman_! You're _crazy_! You come here, with your silly, _insignificant_ box – or whatever the hell it is – and bring my daughter, who's _fifteen_ , to a party? At _Elaine Harper's_? And wearing that tiny little thing! I swear –"

" _MOM_!" Jess yelled with her eyes squeezed shut, to which the entire room went silent. She opened her eyes slowly, absorbing the image of her mother, red in the face, and the Doctor, looking like a lost puppy. She wasn't sure where to pick up in the argument. "Mom," she said more calmly, exhaling gradually, "what do you have against Elaine?"

Melissa looked taken aback, as this was not how she imagined her daughter to react. "I – she's just a bad influence –"

"Worse of an influence than you? She's one of the best things that's happened in my life, and the only thing that actually makes sense." Jess's voice quivered. She'd never really yelled at her mother since her father had left, at least not to the extent they were heading to now.

"Was there alcohol? Older people?" Melissa questioned, completely ignoring Jess's previous input.

"Yes." Although the two women were standing rigid and stiff, the Doctor took a seat and let them talk.

"Did you – did you do anything you'd regret?" Her eyes dropped to the floor. She would never have thought that Jess would ever do something illegal or inapt, but how well did she really know her own daughter?

"Yeah." Melissa's eyes shot back up in confusion. "I walked through that door."

Jess was crying now. She hated shouting and fighting – she was definitely more of a tranquil and placid person – but the fact that her mother had treated her like a piece of meat for the past fifteen years was enough to spit fire out of her chest.

"Do you know how much of a burden you've made me feel like I was? You've treated me like I was _nothing_ since my father walked out that door eight years ago! I always felt second-best, even though there was nobody else to compete with. You made me feel like I wasn't important at all; that I was just some fluke that didn't account for anything. You ruined my life from the moment it started, and I hate you for every second."

With her throat like sand paper, she turned around, grabbed the Doctor's hand furiously, and walked out the back door.

As she was about to leave, a firm hand grasped her shoulder. "Jessica, _don't_."

Melissa Bennett was like ice and fire. Her voice was of razors, and her eyes were of steel. The façade she applied was terrible and shameful, but overpowering nonetheless. However, in those few moments when Jessica saw her mother for who she truly was – scared and lonely and delicate – it took all of her willpower to shake off her hand and slam the door behind her.

The Doctor was already sitting in one of the tan, leather seats in the main control room when she stumbled in, her eyes red and blotchy and her throat dry and rough.

She wiped her eyes quickly and sat across from him on the other side of the console. She wiped her nose on the hem of her dress, mentally cursing herself for being such a crybaby.

Jess felt the seat beside her droop, and a warm arm grab her in an embrace. The Doctor's hand caressed her hair, as she'd taken it out of the intricate braid on her way to the TARDIS. That's when she lost it.

Her chest shook with broken sobs, and her voice came out in a raspy whimper. She held the Doctor so that she wouldn't lose him, and he held her so that she didn't break beyond repair.

Jess didn't understand why she was so dependent in him. Maybe it was because she'd never had someone to hold like this before, or maybe it was because she knew him more than he most likely knew himself.

The Doctor didn't understand why – of all of the people in all of the universes – he had to land in this exact spot. Maybe it was fate – but he knew better than to believe in such things. Maybe there was something uniquely special about Jessica Bennett that couldn't be refrained. Something dangerous? Possibly. Something extraordinary? Most definitely.

The Doctor and Jess held each other until they could both get themselves back together. Jess – embarrassed – carefully maneuvered away from the Doctor, and strategically placed her hair so that he could not see her face. She got up and ran through the corridors, looking for the wardrobe so she could get out of that blasted red dress. This time was easier; no two corridors were exactly alike, which meant that she had a lesser chance of getting lost.

She immediately found a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt to throw on as she entered the infinite room. She hid her previous outfit in an empty cupboard, but kept the shoes; they were quite comfy.

She made her way to the main control room again, but she must have taken a wrong turn, because she ended up in a large, glass dome with one ginormous telescope facing the ceiling. From the glass, Jess concluded that she wasn't looking at stars from planet Earth. There were far too many, way more than was likely to be seen with the light pollution blocking most of the illumination in the sky.

Not far from the sixty-foot-tall telescope was a silhouette of the Doctor laying down. She made her way over to him and sat down beside him. He was staring beyond the glass, wishing – probably – to be back there and travelling like he normally did.

Jess was the first to speak. "What's it like for you, staying in one place? I mean, you're constantly travelling all the time; it must be pretty stressful to not be able to run away at a moment's notice."

He turned his head to look at her face, but she was staring at her hands. "Ah, it's not so bad. It's happened before – although when it does happen, trouble's usually around the corner – but being stuck with you isn't as bad as you might think, Jessica."

She took that into consideration. But there was one question that had been lingering in her mind since she first met the Doctor; or at least, the first time she saw him. And, it was better to let him talk so that she wouldn't have to think about much of anything.

"So, Doctor, I was wondering – well, I've been wondering for a while – I mean, I don't know if you'd want to answer it but –"

He chuckled and said, "Jess, just ask the question."

"Okay. Okay. So, you know that there are bad people, yeah? Like murderers, thieves, British science fiction television writers ..." That earned a laugh from both of them. "And when you think about it, there are plenty more bad people than there are good people; and the good people usually aren't that good. So, my question is, why do you feel obligated to save the human race?"

He sat up and inhaled deeply. "I don't necessarily believe it's an obligation as much as a necessity. Yes, there are bad people. Most humans are. But they aren't villains, and they're not monsters. They just want to live. No human is perfect; every single one of you is flawed. But the thing is, you realize that, and you understand that the world may not be perfect, and the people who live on it aren't either, and you accept that and try your hardest to be your best. And your best is about as close as you can be to perfect. Anyway, if I don't save them, who will?"

Jess nodded, and laid her head down, staring at the new sky. "What are we looking at, exactly?"

"What you'd see if you were stargazing on Gallifrey. The constellation of Kasterborous, can you see it?" He pointed to a figure of stars just below the center of the ceiling. "I used to sneak into the observatory in one of our universities – well, what you'd call a university – the stars never failed to impress me. I had the TARDIS copy the exact observatory right here. It took some time, of course; creating a mental link with a Type 40 is harder than bowling."

Jess laughed. "Well, it's beautiful."

"Nah," he said, standing up. "I've seen better."


	11. Chapter Eleven: A Noble Absence

When Jess woke up, she suspected that the past few days were merely just a dream. As her eyes opened, the familiarity of her bedroom hit her like a slap in the face; the lavender walls and the fluorescent stars on the ceiling; her Doctor Who throw and her favorite Dalek pillow; the fuzzy blue rug shaped like the TARDIS and her unfinished bookshelf with her name scratched in at the bottom.

As the aura of sleep faded, she remembered how only a few hours ago, the Doctor was showing her how to develop a mental link with the TARDIS, allowing her to give full access to her memories and thoughts. It didn't take as long as the Doctor had thought, Jess only physically knowing the TARDIS for a few days and all. But in less than half an hour, Jess was typing away at the design palette with ease, the transparently empty space morphing into a room not unlike her own back half a mile away.

 _"Why'd you choose your own room?" he'd asked, grabbing a book from the shelf and flipping through it. "You could have chosen any room in the entire universe; any assortment of books, any color for your wall."_

 _"I don't know," she'd answered, admiring her work. There was a slight glitch on her bed frame – the cream-colored knob looked translucent against everything else – so she'd deleted the piece and began to reconstruct. "I like it in here. Safe from the dangers of the universe, I guess." She added a window to the far left corner and closed the palette, gazing at the sunrise visible through the clear glass. Jess walked over to it steadily, and watched as her mother stepped into her car and drove away._

 _"This room, it's –"_

 _"You're looking at the past, yes. What you're watching is the events of this morning," he'd interjected, behind her, and carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know, she does her best. Don't hate her; she doesn't deserve it."_

 _Jess faced the Doctor, her eyes misty with saddened tears about to spill._

 _"You don't get to decide what she deserves and what she doesn't." Her eyes shot back to the palette, and she reset the time to the present, the light of the window fading to darkness. She then handed it back to the Doctor with an apologetic look._

 _"I'm sorry; just forget I said that. Thanks for this, though." She traced her finger around the symbol on her pillow. "You know, I kind of always wanted to be an architect, or a designer of some sorts," she'd said, laying her head back._

 _"Really? I wouldn't have expected that from you." He stood at her door frame, the light of the corridor making a sort-of silhouette of him._

 _"Well, what would you have expected me to be, then?" she'd asked, intrigued._

 _"A traveler."_

She sighed and threw her head back onto her pillow. As she lay, she could have sworn that she smelled pancakes, but that couldn't have been possible; especially _those_ kinds of pancakes; and anyway, the TARDIS probably didn't even have a kitchen. However, she put her hair up in a bun-like thing and followed her nose toward the source of the scent.

Her bare feet felt odd against the smooth ground of the TARDIS. Jess could have sworn that she felt the floor beneath her tremble the slightest with every-other footstep, but she knew that the TARDIS wasn't _that_ alive. At least, that's what she was told.

As it turned out, there was indeed a kitchen in the TARDIS, and it did indeed have pancakes. Even her favorite pancakes, with raspberry butter and maple syrup. The TARDIS even stocked her favorite raspberry iced tea. (If it wasn't obvious already, Jess had quite the liking for raspberry flavors.)

"Good morning." She was greeted by a large smile from the Doctor. Jess gave a gaping grin back, and sat in the wooden chair adjacent from him.

"So, you've got a kitchen," she said, her forefinger anxiously tapping away next to a fork, placed right beside the plate on which the pancakes were resting, ready to be eaten.

"I've got loads of kitchens," he said, picking up his own utensil, "I just had a feeling you'd be particularly interested in this one."

"And you also happened to have the exact ingredients for blue extra-chocolate-chip and jimmies pancakes that my dad used to make, yeah?"

"Well," he said, as to not lower his tremendous ego, "the TARDIS had the ingredients and the recipe, I just had to make it."

She gave a visible shiver. "Jeez, that's a bit too, uh, personal, I think."

"Trust me, even if you didn't willingly let her into your mind, she'd definitely be able to find that recipe on the surface."

He nodded to her own pancakes, as he'd already eaten two.

She was still a bit wary about the mind thing, but all was forgotten as the delicious flavor of syrup and batter touched her taste buds. She didn't even flinch as she made a melodramatic moan.

"So ... they're good?" he asked, a smirk stretching across his lips.

"Are you kidding? They're absolutely fantastic." They both gave a knowing smile and she continued on with her breakfast.

When she finished her fifth extra-large pancake, the Doctor gave a look – the one that meant he needed something.

"So, Jessica," he said, his hands clasping loosely on the tabletop.

"Mhm?" she mumbled, her lips submerged in Arizona.

"Well, I'm completely fine if you're against it, but I wanted to watch an episode of, um, my ... show, I guess."

Jess almost spit out her drink.

"Um, absolutely not," she said forcefully. "I am _not_ creating a paradox, especially with the threat of my entire universe disappearing from reality."

"What do you mean, a paradox? How would watching my own life cause a paradox?" he asked.

"Because knowing what happens in your personal future fixes it. C'mon, who's the Time Lord here? And anyway, it's not just your life you'd be watching; hundreds of people's time lines are constantly crossing your own."

He nodded, as if he knew what she was going to say anyway.

"Nope. And it's still going to be a no, no matter what you say." She crossed her arms over-dramatically.

He shrugged his shoulders, as if to say he was giving up on his efforts to get what he wanted.

"Fine. Um, do you remember in the Library, when you were with Donna, and River had just – River had just ... died, and you held your sonic and her book and asked her if she wanted to read the future? Do you remember how tempting it was, but how much you wanted to run away because you knew it was dangerous?"

He just nodded again, this time with a pained expression.

"Well, picture that, but on an immensely greater level. If you were to see your own future – your own _fixed_ life – well, who other than the last Time Lord would be crazy enough to change it?"

He nodded again, but then murmured, "It wouldn't have to be from my future. I mean, there's got to be an episode that I wouldn't remember from my past."

Jess fiddled her thumbs in concentration, and a realization hit her like a bolt of lightning.

"I think I've got the perfect episode."

Jess couldn't believe that there were so many rooms on the TARDIS. Sure, it was basically infinite, but she wouldn't have ever thought that there would be more than one kitchen, let alone a theater.

"Okay, so you remember how you wanted to know what the human race would do without you, yeah?" He nodded. "Well, this is what happens, in a way. So, this episode it a bit – um – weird, to say the least. I mean, the first time I saw it I wanted to puke, but just, trust me, okay?" she said, sliding her disk into the slot.

"Okay. I'm ready."

They sat next to each other in the navy plush seats. Their elbows were constantly touching, but their hands wouldn't even think about it.

As the opening theme began to play, Jess's quiet thoughts turned into ones of longing. She recalled how this was her favorite season, but also the saddest of them all.

"Who's 'Catherine Tate'?" he asked, as the name momentarily slid onscreen.

"Uh, that's the actress who plays Donna."

The song ended with the name of the episode, "Turn Left by Russell T. Davies". Jess let in a short gasp of breath, quickly realizing how strange it was to be watching an episode of a television show with the actual fictional character sitting next to her.

They both watched the episode silently; both of their faces showing worry and pain of loss, and both of their minds racing with the knowledge of what is bound to happen in the course of the next hour.

Although normally, Jess couldn't keep her eyes off of the screen, but this time, she couldn't keep her eyes off of the Doctor. She wondered what it was like for him, to see through the eyes of one of his former companions, to see his former lover again, to see what exactly happened in that bubble universe Donna Noble was stuck in. _It couldn't be easy_ , she thought, as she began to see the tears forming in his eyes. _Especially not for him._

The episode ended with where the Doctor remembered it, but as the end credits began to race past the screen, he swiftly got up from his seat and raced out of the room. Jess tried her best to follow, but his footsteps only led her back to the main control room, where the Doctor wasn't anywhere to be found.

She groaned, and sat down. She ran her fingers through her frizzy hair and threw them in her sweatshirt pocket. _Maybe he's in the observatory,_ she thought, her warm feet now slapping against the cold floor repeatedly.

And funny enough, that's exactly where he was.

"Hey," she whispered, taking a seat next to his stationary body, which was facing upwards.

He looked over at her, but he wasn't crying, like Jess expected him to be. Instead, his eyes were teeming with uncertainty, and beyond that was an acute feeling of rage.

"Jessica," he said, his voice soft and careful, almost the exact opposite of his mood, "if I ask you something, you'll answer honestly, yes?"

She nodded slowly, unsure where he was heading in the conversation.

"Why did you show me that episode?" His words were like a punch in the gut. Jess wasn't sure whether he needed a hug or simply someone to talk to. Either one was perfectly fine with Jess.

"I, um, you needed to see it, I think." His eyes were still lost in the indecision of anger and sorrow, but Jess had a feeling he was weighing down the former.

"Do you – do you enjoy watching my life, Jessica?" She could definitely sense the anger, and decided that even if she were telling the truth, it was essential to humor the Time Lord.

"No. Well, I enjoy being a part of it, even if that part isn't exactly physical."

"No, no, that's not what I was asking. I meant, do you enjoy my pain, and my sorrow, and all of the terrible factors of my life." His tears were brimming his eyelids, a single drop of sadness rolling down his cheek.

"Of course not." Her voice was barely audible, but she knew he could still hear her clearly. "In fact, every single feeling is shared; your pain is my pain, your joy is mine."

He closed his eyes, letting the small cascade of tears run down his face.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice becoming a bit louder now that the worst of the interrogation was over. "I shouldn't have – you didn't need to see that. I'm sorry."

"No," he said, holding her hands in between his. " _I'm_ sorry. I don't usually act like this ... it's just –"

"It's okay," she said, her hand squeezing his. "It's okay."


	12. Chapter Twelve: The Doctor Dances

Jess' hand flew across the bleached paper at such a rate that she was probably going to feel it in the morning. But there was something profoundly enthralling about pouring her emotions out into a notebook. No one would ever see it, of course, but it was reassuring to know that not everything she ever thought was trapped inside her lonely mind.

Violins and pianos and all sorts of classical instruments played softly in her ears, their harmony giving her inspiration to scrape more slightly incoherent words with a broken pen she'd found in a drawer. Her bare feet slid against each other in hopes for warmth, as the air was quite chilly. Her left hand was keeping warm between her knees, and her right was clammy against the thin plastic.

There must have been a knock on her door, but she wouldn't have heard it. She could feel the Doctor's presence, however, and quickly slid her journal under her pillow.

"Uh, hi," she stammered, sliding her reading glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"What's that?" he asked, peering behind her back for the leather-bound secret keeper.

"Uh – it's, um, nothing." She smiled sheepishly, careful not to reveal the book. Her hands slid it further away from his curious eye, deeper into the abyss of pillows surrounding her head.

"Sure didn't look like nothing," he muttered, walking towards her.

"Doctor, I'm sure you didn't come in here just to be a creep and read my stuff. So, what's up?" She swung her legs around to the edge of her bed and looked up at him, waiting for his answer.

"You're right. I'm not here to read your stuff, I'm here to ask you if you'd like to see something." He gave a shy smile, one that was seldom to Jess's eyes.

"You know, that's just the kind of thing kidnappers say right after they ask if you'd like candy."

"Well, you're already in my home, so there's no point in taking you somewhere else," he playfully retorted, holding out his hand.

"Hm. I guess so," she muttered, grasping his and following him out the door.

They arrived at the archway before the main control room not too long after, but the walls and the floor seemed to be reflecting a soft light from the contiguous room. Jess then felt a pair of warm, gentle hands cover her eyes, and her lips parted to reveal a curious smile. "Doctor," she whispered, bringing her hands up to his, "what are you doing?"

"You'll see," he replied, beginning to walk towards the faint light.

She followed – difficultly – and the Doctor placed her in what seemed to be the center of the room. She could smell something familiar, and the temperature seemed a bit cooler ...

"Okay, are you ready?" he asked in an undertone. She nodded, his hands still covering her eyes, his lips inches away from her ear.

He let his arms fall limp, but she didn't open her eyes immediately. When she did, however, she was definitely taken aback.

"Oh – _Doctor_ ," she muttered, her eyes absorbing the beauty. There were tiny Christmas lights hung around the console and the railings, tinsel winding and swaying in a synchronized manner, ornaments of snowmen and presents and other festive things hanging from a small Christmas tree over by the door. There was even a wreath hung on a window that wasn't there before, but instead showing her backyard, it revealed a beautiful blanket of snow.

"So," he said, grinning, "you like it?"

"Are you kidding? It's _beautiful_." Her eyes wandered upwards, where she saw a gravity globe shedding white flakes. One landed on her nose, and she realized it was snow. Real, cold, snow that disappeared before it touched the ground.

"How – _how_ did you do this?"

"With a lot of determination, and a bit of help from a grumpy warlock," he joked, walking back towards her. He leaned over and pressed a few buttons, dimming the illumination from the gravity globe. As he switched a lever, a familiar tune echoed throughout the room, one that Jess had played on the piano some time ago, long before she discovered the Doctor.

" _Première Gymnopédie_ ," she whispered, smiling. "I haven't heard this one in years."

"You know this?" the Doctor questioned, returning the gesture.

"Yeah. I used to play the piano; I performed this at a recital when I was six."

He held out his hand, not in a way meaning to go somewhere, but as if he was asking to dance.

"You're kidding, right?"

"What?" he said, pretending to be offended. "I never got a chance to dance last night."

"But – I don't dance." Her voice dropped to decibels below a whisper.

"You do now," he said, grabbing her hands and delicately pulling her to him. She laughed, her head rolling back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. They swayed to the music for a few moments, getting used to the feeling of each other. The Doctor awkwardly spun her, and the laughter began again. Jess raised her toes a bit and rested her head on his shoulder, and he rested his on hers.

"So," he said, interrupting the silence.

"Mhm?" she murmured, her eyes closing.

"You never told me you play the piano."

" _Played_. Past-tense. And there are a lot of things you don't know about me," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Is that right?" he teased.

She lifted her head so she could look him in the eyes. "Well, I know more about you than you know about me, seeing as _you've_ only known me for about three days, whereas _I've_ known you for years, so yeah, that's right."

He gave a defeated chuckle, but let go of her, running over to the tree. These events happened so fast that it took Jess a moment to comprehend that she should probably follow him.

He reached inside the prickly green mass, and then turned around, holding a small box with a blue – _TARDIS_ blue – bow on top. His shy smile returned as she carefully grabbed it from his hand.

"I know it's not Christmas yet, but ... This is me saying sorry, for earlier today." She gave him a diffident glance, assuring him that it was perfectly okay.

With trembling fingers, she pulled at one end of the ribbon, loosening it and letting it fall. She opened the lid, and not suspecting much, pulled out a folded piece of parchment.

 _Merry Christmas. Hope you find this useful._

 _Doctor x_

Jess used all of her willpower not to cry – and especially not to fangirl. Under the paper lay a small, seemingly regular silver key, not unlike the many given to his previous companions. But she couldn't stop the tears this time. Her hands immediately wiped them away, but not before the Doctor saw. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again, letting her get over whatever state she was in.

" _Doctor_ ," she finally whispered, gratitude pouring from her words. " _Thank you_. You're – I just – thank you." She looked up at him, and he was smiling.

"But, I just have to ask: why me?" She closed the lid and placed it in her pocket.

"Well, who else?" Jess gave him a skeptical look, but the wide smile returned to her face.

" _Oh!_ " she said a moment later, realization hitting her, "I haven't gotten you anything for Christmas!"

He looked surprised at her change in tone so quickly. "You don't have to get me anything," he assured.

"But I _do_!" She put the box in her pocket. "Don't move. I'll be right back."

Jess raced out of the main control room and maneuvered her way through the corridor-maze until she got to her bedroom. She searched frantically for a large piece of parchment or wrapping paper or _something_.

She then realized that she was mentally linked with an ancient time machine, and that if she asked for something, she'd probably get it. So, awkwardly, she sat down on her bed and began to talk.

"Uh, hi. This is completely weird and new so I'm sorry if I sound stranger than usual, but Christmas is tomorrow, and I kind of need to wrap the gift I have for him – the Doctor, I mean. So, if you could kindly – oh!" She must have said something right, because leaning against her bookshelf was a roll of wrapping paper with snowflakes and little cartoon Daleks. She quickly wrapped her present to him, and dashed back to where he was, not before whispering a quick _thanks_ to the walls of the corridors, afraid that if someone were to hear her, she'd be put in a mental institution.

Unable to understand how the Doctor and his companions could love running so much, she thrust the Dalek-covered gift in his hands and sat down, allowing her heart rate to slow and her breathing to go back to normal. (It wasn't that she was out-of-shape – which technically, potato was a shape – but that the distance from her room to the main control room was a bit less than half a mile.)

"Oh, Jessica, you didn't have to do this," he said, laughing at the wrapping paper.

"Just open it," she said, folding her legs onto the chair.

He slowly tore the paper away, and held the unwrapped book in his hands. It was tattered, and ink-smudged, and loved nonetheless. But, Jess had realized, she had written in her last page, and the words scribbled inside were of no real meaning to her. However, they could be important to him.

So, he unwound the string keeping the pages bound, and opened to the first page.

"No, Jess," he said, closing it. He tried to hand it back to her, but she just shook her head. "I can't take this. It's too – I can't."

"Seriously, Doctor, you can have it. You want to know more about me, read that book."

He gave a small huff, and muttered a _thank you_.

"Haha, be pouty. Oh, and Merry Christmas," she said sarcastically.

There was then a loud _creak_ , like the opening of a door. Jess spun around, and saw Elaine, eyes wide and legs paralyzed. The Doctor saw her too, and slapped on a big, goofy smile.

"Oh – my – _God_." Jess couldn't keep herself from laughing at her astonishment.

"Hey Elaine," Jess called. "Shut the door behind you, it's freezing."

"Jess, it's only fifty degrees out," the Doctor murmured, stifling a laugh himself.

"It's still cold, okay?" she retorted.

Elaine began to move, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of the TARDIS. "But – but – it – it was –" she stammered, finally looking to Jess for answers.

"Yeah, it's bigger on the inside," the Doctor said for her, pleased that he managed to dumbfound yet another person with his time machine.

"Actually," Jess corrected, "it's dimensionally transcendental."

Elaine gave her a look that told her to shut up, but also to know what the hell she had just said.

"Don't need to be too technical, Jess."

"Yes, but then there's also the possibility of not being technical enough, mister 'Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey'," Jess countered.

"Hey, that was a different regeneration –"

"But it was still you."

"Can you two please stop being adorable idiots and tell me why I saw a tiny blue box out there and a giant space ship in here?" she asked, growing impatient.

"Wow," Jess muttered, trying still to stay on her nerves. "First guess is a giant space ship. That's about half-right, yeah?"

"Well, time machine, space ship, same difference."

"Seriously you two, I think I'm gonna puke."

"Elaine," Jess said in her sardonically sophisticated tone, "it's completely irrelevant to call the Doctor and me adorable, strictly speaking because the age difference is enormous. More enormous than you and your boyfriends."

"Wait, how old is he then?" Elaine asked, inquisitive. The biggest age difference between her and her boyfriends – and hookups – was only about ten years.

"Well, I'm nine-hundred and nine –"

"Which is eight-hundred and ninety four years' age difference."

" _Oh my God, Jess_."

The three of them began to laugh at how completely absurd the entire situation was.

"Wait, Elaine," Jess said, completely serious, as the laughter died down. "How did you know we were in here?"

"Your mom told me." Jess's muscles tensed.

"She also said something about being sorry about last night – I didn't get you in trouble, did I?"

Jess shook her head. "Nah, just some stupid fight. Hey, are you staying over? There are about a billion rooms in here."

"Yeah, my dad's got something going on at work and the little one's got some other things he's gotta do – on Christmas, I know – but Melissa said I could stay, but I think I'll just sleep in your room. This place makes my head want to explode."

"That tends to happen. Well, when you see my mom, will you tell her that if she wants to apologize, to say it to my face?" Jess tried to say it in the nicest possible way, but Elaine seemed to sense that something wasn't right.

"' _I'm not a bloody owl,'_ " she said, quoting _Harry Potter_ , in her best impression of Hermione Granger.

"Read the books and I'll let you quote JK Rowling," Jess called as she walked away, her spirits rising.

"Well, Merry Christmas to you too."


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Teen Angst

_Run. Just run. That's all you can do for now. Get as far away from here as you can. Don't speak, don't stop. Just GO!_

Smoke. Flames. A burning hot sensation sent Jess into convulsions. The hotness spread through her body like a disease.

Sweat beaded on her forehead and ran down the side of her face. She tried to take a gulp of air, but her lungs seemed to be malfunctioning. Flames spit from her mouth. If she didn't know any better, she'd think _she_ was the cause for the surrounding catastrophe.

She needed to get away from the heart of the fire. Then, and only then, could she clear her thoughts and think of a way to get out.

"Doctor!" she croaked. Her throat felt like sandpaper. "Elaine! Someone? Please!"

"Not here, my child," something answered back. It sounded as if it were submerged in water. Jess jumped, her heart could be heard from a galaxy away. "This is up to you. You must be the one to escape your own peril." The voice that echoed through her head seemed to belong to no one, as if it'd been there since the very beginning of time.

"Help me," she pleaded. Jess could barely hear her own voice, but she knew that whoever was talking to her knew what she was thinking, let alone saying.

"There will come a time where I cannot guide you to safety, and the only way I can prepare you is in your mind."

Jess wiped the blistering tears from her eyes. "Stop giving me riddles! What the hell are you preparing me for?" The smoke reached a thickness to the extent that Jess couldn't even see her own hands.

"Always such a stubborn girl," the voice replied with something that sounded like a chuckle.

Just then, a pathway formed within the blackness, and Jess took the opportunity to run for her life. She didn't know where she was running from, or where she was going, until she saw two white doors: the inside of the TARDIS.

" _JESSICA - SOMETHING - BENNETT_ ," a shrill voice screamed. Although she'd usually be distraught at being woken up, the booming call was reassurance that she wouldn't remain victim to her dreams that night.

She shifted in her comfortable bed and rubbed her eyes, her hair - although not rustled as much as it would be if she got a full night's sleep - was a jumbled mess atop her head.

The door slammed open, her bed shaking - mostly because of the slamming but also because of the fact that she fell off of it.

"Elaine," she mumbled from the floor, calmly but impatiently, running a hand through her hair. "It's like, nine. What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh, sweetie, you're such a lightweight," she said - _cooed_ would probably be a better word - diving into her mattress. "But anyway, I met some people that are throwing a huge party at this underage club, and you should come with me."

"'Underage' as in 'legal'? Since when do you do anything legal? Wait – don't answer that question. Anyway, it's Christmas. Goodnight." Jess retorted, crawling back into her bed.

"Then think of it as a Christmas party. You don't even need to bring anyone presents. Just have fun." Elaine grabbed Jess's hand and pulled her up. She attempted to drag her out of her bed, but Jess refused, creating a cocoon around herself with blankets.

"Leave me alone, it's Christmas."

"It's still only Christmas Eve for another two hours, silly." Elaine picked up Jess's sonic screwdriver and buzzed it at her face, illuminating her groggy features in a blue haze.

"I hate you. I hope you know that," Jess mumbled sarcastically, throwing her blankets to the floor.

"I promise you I'll make it up to you, just come with me." Elaine got on her knees and clasped her hands out to her friend, and Jess hit her in the shoulder. She grumbled an ' _ouch_ ' and dragged her best friend into the wardrobe.

"How'd you even find my bedroom?" Jess asked as she was being pulled along corridors.

"There's a little voice in my head that tells me where to go," she said, as if it was the most normal thing she'd ever spoken.

"Y'know, maybe you should get that checked out..." Jess said, a glint of uncertainty in her eyes. Elaine stopped at an intersection, turning towards her friend.

She tucked a piece of golden hair behind her ear to reveal a glowing green earpiece. "GPS, TARDIS style," she said, resuming her haul of fifteen-year-old.

"Oh," she replied, tripping on her own foot. "Got it."

Jess could tell that Elaine was having the time of her life inside the wardrobe. As she'd put it when she walked in, " _It's like going shopping without having to hand anyone my money._ "

"Can't you wear your own things?" Jess pondered aloud, after finding a pair of jeans and a Hogwarts sweater amidst the avalanche of clothing.

Elaine shook her head. "This place is beautiful! Why would I want to wear my own clothes when there's a place like this in the world?" Jess walked into a slim stall, pulling the pale curtains shut.

"Don't ask me. I only come here 'cause my own closet consists of jeans and fandom tee shirts. And, just so you know, the TARDIS isn't actually _in_ the world." Jess walked out, pulling her hair out of the collar of her sweater.

"Oh, shut your face, you're making my head spin. But," Elaine said, poking her head around a shelf and gazing at Jess, "you're wearing jeans and a fandom shirt right now." Her eyebrows furrowed. She resumed her scavenge while Jess bowed her head in an attempt to look at her attire.

Just as Elaine spun around in front of Jess - flaunting off the green dress she found - the Doctor stumbled in with a hand over his eyes, protecting himself from any un-decent minors he could possibly accidentally see.

"Are the both of you - well - okay?" he asked, turning around to try and face them blindly.

"If by 'okay'," Jess said, chuckling, "you mean 'dressed', then yes, Doctor, we're perfect. He unclasped his hand from his face and made an awkward grin, to which Jess returned one in exchange.

She wandered a few corners and saw Elaine, applying yet another layer of makeup to her face. Jess groaned slightly, mumbled a little " _let's go already, I'm gonna fall asleep_ ," dragged her out of the wardrobe, and questioned her about where the three of them were going.

"Oh, I'm not coming with you," the Doctor replied once she'd asked. "I have some - erm - work to do. You know. Wibbly." He fumbled with his wrists, an immensely guilty look crossing his features.

"Yeah ... wibbly," Elaine muttered, her face distorting into one of confusion.

"It's a thing," Jess filled in, noticing the look her friend was giving her. She had to swallow her laughter in fear that Elaine might slap her.

"Yeah," the Doctor said, not really paying attention. "A thing. Quite an important thing as well, best you two be off." He averted his eyes from the two children, one hand rested on the TARDIS console and another checking his pocket watch circumspectly.

" _Okay_ ," Jess said, drawing out the word. "Not sure I want to know what you're doing. But whatever." She grabbed Elaine's wrist and escorted her through the blue doors. "When we come back I better not see a broken TARDIS!" she called from the trees. The doors of the time machine slammed shut, and Jess laughed.

"What's so funny?" Elaine questioned. Her golden hair bounced as she turned her head to see her friend.

"Oh, nothing," Jess replied absentmindedly, a smirk lingering on her lips. Her chocolate eyes flitted for a moment before going back into focus. She was about to spout this overly dramatic monologue about how she'd never expected the Doctor to show up in her life, but she felt as if Elaine deserved a break. After all, it _was_ Christmas.

As the two friends reached the backyard, Jess made sure to keep her face hidden. She didn't want to even think about the lecture she'd get if she encountered her mother. Elaine saw what she was trying to do and rolled her eyes, shoving Jess a bit as they tiptoed down the front lawn.

"I can't believe you two are fighting," she said, opening the door to her car. She leaned against the cream colored frame and gave Jess an admonishing glare.

" _I_ can't believe you're reprimanding _me_ about my relationship with my mother when you're the one who's here on Christmas." Elaine's piercing gray eyes shot over to the other side of her car. She muttered a small ' _hmph_ ' and slid into her plush seat.

" _I_ can't believe you're still in such a crappy mood. You've got a fictional character in your backyard and you're pissed off about your mother. It's _Christmas_ , Jessica. It only happens once a year. At least pretend to be happy, otherwise I'm gonna turn into a grumpy tree like you." She pulled out of the driveway silently, and Jess tried her best not to be offended.

Of course, Jess being who she was, she had to at least say something.

"I have a right to be grumpy, you know! I have every single right to not be giddy and perfect for Christmas!" She groaned.

Elaine pulled over, her face becoming red. "Oh, and why's that. Your alien isn't as perfect as you thought he was? Are you cold? Would you like me to turn the heat up? I'm trying to help you, Jess! I'm taking you out into the world! We're going to meet new people, see some new sights! But no! You just want to sit at home and cry yourself to sleep, if that it?" She was fuming. Jess could practically see the smoke emitting from her ears.

"Oh, don't be stupid Elaine! Don't you see the big problem in this situation we're in? The Doctor comes, the Earth is in danger, he saves it. But then he leaves, and you know what happens to me? I get left behind. Because they all get left behind, one way or another." Jess rested her head on her seat, but Elaine smacked her.

"What the hell was that for?" she seethed, her cheek sporting a red hand.

"For being you. I'm not stupid, Jess. I know that's not it, you're definitely not shallow enough! What's really going on in that silly little brain of yours?" Her voice became kind and gentle, like she was morphing from a stone to a piece of clay.

Jess sighed, and explained the truth of what was really happening. "Today is my last day of not knowing, Lainey. Tomorrow I see that alien in my backyard change into a different man before he does. I'm not gonna be able to tell him anything about his future, and I feel so guilty just thinking about it. He's known me for three days, I don't expect him to expect much from me, but I've known him for as long as I can remember! It's like – every time I look at him, I know that he can sense that I'm lying to him. I almost let it slip that two of his best friends die in the next few hundred years the other day, which could have gotten me into some pretty deep crap. And I feel like I owe it to him – to tell him what's coming. But I can't. Not even when I watch him die tomorrow, and some other man go sauntering around with his name and his memories." Jess took a deep breath and held in a single tear that was threatening to escape the safety of her eyelid. " _That's_ what's been going on in my head."

Elaine sat up attentively, her gray eyes softening. "Jess – I, I'm so sorry." She rested her slim hands on the black of her steering wheel. "And you do that often? Watch him die, I mean."

"Unfortunately." Her eyes trailed down to her chipped nails, and she found herself peeling at the remaining lacquer.

"Well," Elaine said, turning her engine back on, "tonight, it will be my goal to make you not a grumpy tree, and maybe find you someone who's actually a real person, okay?"

Jess nodded and sent her a weak smile. "Yeah, okay."

The two friends sat in the car in silence. Both Jess and Elaine's minds were speeding, trying to preoccupy themselves with useless things like Christmas and parties.

"By the way," Jess said after about half-an-hour, "my middle name's Rhiannon. Just in case you were wondering."


	14. Chapter Fourteen: The Underground

"So this is where you're taking me." Jess scoffed, her hands on her hips. " _Cassandra's_? We're never gonna meet new people here."

Elaine rolled her eyes and laughed, locking her car with the push of a button. She grabbed Jess's hand and coaxed her inside.

Jess felt like it was exams week in freshman year again, walking into Cassandra's Café. The smell of burnt coffee wasn't as revolting as it used to be when she used to take her old spot in a booth near the far window, but it still had the essence of pubescent blobs of stress that ran off of coffee and five minutes of sleep. As she was making her way to the frayed plush, Elaine stopped her with a warning glance, and Jess had the feeling that there was something she was missing.

"Wait, I thought we were going to a club ...?" Jess pondered aloud. Elaine ignored her, and grabbed a fifty from her pocketbook, discreetly sliding it across the counter to a pimply, gangly redhead, who Jess recognized as a junior by the name of Sam. He put the money in his pocket and glanced in the direction of a large gray door behind the counter. Elaine and Jess made their way through the crowd of caffeine-induced teenagers and stood in front of the metal.

"This is _really_ sketchy, Lain. Are you sure we're allowed to do this?" Jess wondered, her heart palpitating uneasily.

"Of course," she said absentmindedly. Jess didn't believe her, but she followed anyway.

Elaine opened the door – which gave a loud _creak_ – and the two of them walked down the rickety steps together. Jess could feel thumping under her feet, like a heartbeat. She wondered what was down there. _It couldn't be a hidden club underneath the stairs of a coffee shop, could it?_ she pondered, the balls of her feet barely making contact with the musty carpet that lined the floors of the tiny hall.

And sure enough, it was. At the end of the cramped stairwell, there was an old wooden door, with a matte plaque on it that read _The Underground_. Music blasted in the opposite room – a kind of music that Jess wasn't very accustomed to – that made her feel as if her ears would start to bleed.

"Elaine, you're not serious, right?" she questioned as her blonde friend opened the door in front of her. "I've been coming here all my life. You can't tell me there's a secret teenage club underneath my favorite café."

Her head whipped around, her blonde curls bouncing. "You're too stiff Jess. Loosen up." She closed the door behind her, nodded at the burly teen who seemed to be a bouncer, and grabbed Jess's slightly clammy hand.

"This isn't really my type of gig," she muttered. But Elaine didn't hear her.

"Alright, look at that guy over there," she said, pointing to an average looking guy, sat around a group of other average looking guys.

"What about him?"

Elaine rolled her eyes. " _He's cute_. Go talk to him. Or would you rather me take him?"

Jess giggled and stuck out her tongue. She caught the boy's eye and immediately her eyes began a staring contest with the ground. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks and a chuckle from behind her. Elaine stood with her arms crossed, a smile tugging on her lips.

"You're so bad at this."

"Oh, you're telling me?"

"Honey. I know you don't believe this, but you're really hot. And some guys like nerdy girls," she said, eyeing her Hogwarts jumper. "Look, if you go up to him and start talking, I'm sure he'll fall in love with you by the time the clock strikes twelve."

Jess blushed even harder. "You sure?"

Elaine caressed her cheek, looking straight into her earthy eyes. "I promise."

Jess reluctantly made her way to the boy, feeling her heartrate accelerate to way more than she thought was humanly possible as she shyly waved at him. He sent a smile, and gestured to the metal stool next to him.

She sat down, her mind repeating the same phrase: _don't screw this up, don't screw this up, don't screw this up_.

"Hi," the boy said, the blue in his eyes twinkling with the multicolored lights above them.

"Hi," she repeated, her lips upturning in a timid smile.

"I'm Seth," the boy said.

"Jess," she answered.

The senior behind the bar asked them if they wanted anything to drink. Seth shook his head, gesturing to the glass he held in his hand. Jess ordered a Pepsi.

"So, d'you live around here?" he asked swirling the white and red striped straw with his finger.

"Yeah, just down the road. You?"

"Uh, not really." He looked at the group of guys behind him. "I'm down here with my mom and step dad for Christmas. I heard about this place from a friend of mine that works here."

"Oh, well, where're you from?" Jess took a sip of the dark brown liquid.

"The short story is New York," he said, a smirk playing on his lips.

"What's the long story?" Jess found herself asking.

"My mom and I moved around a lot when I was a kid. I've been all over the country. Then my mom met Rick, and they settled down in New York. Mom got a job in the city, and had a kid with my step dad, so we've lived there ever since."

Jess's stomach flew to her throat at the mention of that name. She swallowed it, pushing it from her mind.

"So what brought you to the middle of Connecticut at Christmas?"

"It was my step dad's idea. I guess him and my mom are planning on doing something, so they brought me and Wren along."

He took a gulp of his drink. "So what about you? What's your family like?"

Jess chuckled, leaning her cheek on her hand. "It's just me and my mom." She thought about it for another second. "And my friend Elaine. She's at my house more than I am."

"Was that the blonde you walked in with?"

 _Oh no_ , she found herself thinking. _Of course, he likes her_.

"Don't worry," he said, as if reading her thoughts. "She's not really my type."

Jess tried to hold back a smile.

"Miss Bennet?" a voice echoed through the dimly lit house. The Doctor closed the back door behind him.

"Oh," he heard, turning to his right. Melissa stood at the kitchen counter with a kettle of steaming water in her hand. "Tea?"

The Doctor smiled. "That'd be lovely."

The two sat across from each other at the dining room table. The Doctor looked at the light brown of the liquid as if it interested him greatly.

"I'm just gonna say it," Melissa said, setting her cup down. "I have no idea who you are, where you came from, or what you want from my daughter. Somehow, you have an impossible spaceship in my backyard that you can't be damned to up and leave with. Now, my question is," she leaned forward, her weight placed on her elbows and her eyes a spark from being ablaze. "What exactly do you want?"

The Doctor set down his own mug, his forehead creased in confusion. "I don't want anything. Except Jessica's help."

Melissa leaned back and crossed her arms. "And what _exactly_ can a fifteen-year old girl help a grown man such as yourself with?"

"The reason I haven't left yet it because I _can't_. There is something wrong with my spaceship, and I think Jess is the reason it landed here. She is the _only_ person that can help me." He took a deep breath and brought his hands together in front of him. "The last thing I want is for your daughter to be in danger, trust me. But the longer I'm here, the more dangerous this world becomes for her. For everyone."

She didn't meet his eyes.

"So please, _please_ understand that while I will try my best to keep your daughter safe, the only way I can save your world is with her help."

With her eyes locked on the now-cold cup of tea in front of her, Melissa Bennett took a shaky breath. "She's the only thing I have left," she whispered, a tear threatening to fall on her cheek. "I couldn't juggle finishing school with being a mother, so I never got a proper education. My husband left me when I was twenty-two. I mean, I'm a temp for God's sake. The only meaning left in my life is Jessica. And if you take her away from me," she looked at him with those cold eyes of hers, "I swear, it will be the end of you."

The Doctor sent her a kind smile. "If it makes any difference," he said, standing up, "I think you're worth so much more than you believe."


	15. Chapter Fifteen: A Christmas Curiosity

As usual, Jess woke up in the TARDIS with a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that urged her to be adventurous. As usual, she told it to shut up. But, as it was Christmas, she felt as if she might just have an adventure anyway.

In her customary morning grogginess, Jess trudged around her room and the bathroom interchangeably, sighing at the frizzy mess she called her hair, mentally complaining about how bad the wifi was (if there even was any), and contemplating about whether she should go back home for Christmas. She decided she would, not just because her mom wanted her back, but because she missed the feeling of her _real_ room in her _real_ house, not the copy she had been living in for the past few days. And it _was_ just a copy, even if that copy did happen to be in the TARDIS.

She made her way out of the TARDIS in her purple plaid pants and her oversized _Sherlock_ tee, following tradition, as she never actually got dressed on Christmas day. She did, however, forget to put socks on, so the bitter grass biting her toes only made her walk faster towards the house.

She carefully opened the sliding glass door as to not startle anybody. _She_ was startled, however, when a pair of warm, welcoming arms engulfed her torso in a hug.

" _Jessica Rhiannon Bennett_ ," Melissa sighed, grasping her daughter even tighter. "Don't you ever, _ever_ , do that again."

"What, be stubborn?" Jess joked, letting go.

"No, be stupid." They both shared an apologetic smile, and then Jess felt the impossibly large force that was Elaine slam into her, making them both fall onto the hard ground.

"Merry Christmas, goof," Elaine said, her golden hair falling around her face.

"You know, that kind of hurt," Jess said, poking her side, in a result of the blonde rolling over in a fit of giggles.

"Ugh," she groaned sarcastically, "I hate you."

"And I love you." There was a second of silence before the two best friends howled in laughter.

"Girls!" Melissa called from the room next door. "Should we open presents now or –"

" _Now_ ," the two girls interjected simultaneously.

They raced each other to the lounge, enjoying the chance of immaturity. It wasn't often that Jess allowed herself to act like a five year old; Elaine usually behaved immaturely enough for the both of them. But, as it was Christmas, and things with her mother seemed resolved, Jess decided that she should have some fun while it was an option.

The three of them sat on the faded couch, handing out eachother's presents. Jess took a deep breath, letting the aroma of rising cookies and fake pine and the bitter coolness of the weather and the vanilla scent that lingered on the furniture and just _Christmas_ fill her up, calming her jittery nerves. She didn't even know what she was so worked up over, although there was something unusual in the air that made her feel uneasy.

"Hey," she said, opening her eyes - not even realizing that they were closed. "Where's the Doctor?"

But she didn't have to ask, because just as she opened her mouth, the Time Lord stumbled down the stairs with a giant smile, his bowtie crooked and his hair disheveled.

"Merry Christmas!" he said a bit too loud. His foot slipped on the last step, resulting in an overly-dramatic tumble. He didn't get up, as Jess thought he would. But instead, he stared hungrily at his hands, as if they had turned a different color, or sprouted miniature wings.

She got up, walking towards him as cautiously as she could. "Doctor," she said, her voice gentle and steady. "What's going on?"

He took a moment to reply. "Well, I don't think I'm sure - _blimey_ , look at your face!" Jess was taken aback as he scrambled to get himself up, and rushed over to her, stroking her face awkwardly.

Elaine and Melissa both made their way over to the Doctor.

"Should I call someone?" Melissa suggested, unsure.

"I don't think calling anyone would be a good idea, Ms. Bennett," Elaine replied, as the Doctor moved onto her, both of them looking at each other in the same, strange way. "Jess? Got any ideas?"

She shook her head. "Well, where's he been all night?"

"He's been ... I dunno. In his space ship or something," Melissa replied a bit warily.

"Maybe he's been drugged," Elaine said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't think drugs effect him the same way it effects humans." Jess crossed her arms.

"Maybe he's just having withdrawals." Elaine jumped back on the couch. "You know, because he travels a lot, and because he's not at the moment, it's affecting him. Like an alcoholic having withdrawals with hallucinations and stuff, just on a slightly lesser level." Jess looked at her, astonished.

"What?" she said. "I may be blonde, but I'm not stupid." Jess smiled in agreement, and sat next to the Doctor, who was now positioned on the floor, fiddling with the carpet.

"What am I supposed to do?" she whispered, just so he could hear. He didn't acknowledge her at all. She brought a finger under his chin and moved his head so that he was looking directly at her. "You're usually the one who knows everything, and now you've gone mad."

It was as if a light turned on in the vastness of his mind. In the blink of an eye, he was standing up and straightening out his most valued item of clothing. "What did I miss?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair in vain.

"Woah, Jess, what did you say to him?" Elaine said, impressed. She just rolled her eyes in response.

"I don't know, you just went a bit loopy." Jess said while tying her hair back.

This seemed to bother the Doctor, as he looked to have no recollection of the quite insane incident.

"Okay, now that that's over, presents?" Melissa said, a bit relieved that the situation didn't require any of her interference, especially on Christmas. The two girls - and the Doctor - nodded eagerly, sitting around the tree, decorated with handmade ornaments from years past.

There wasn't much - there never was. At least, not as much as someone like Elaine would be accustomed to. But Jess couldn't help but smile at how fortunate she was to have friends - _family_ \- who loved her as much as she loved them. To hell with the presents. Christmas was about love, and family, and homemade chocolate chip cookies, _not_ presents. But she was elated when she tore some wrapping paper apart to reveal a new sonic screwdriver, the same as the Doctor's. She opened it up and pointed it at him, expecting it to simply light up.

"Jess!" the Doctor yelled, ducking. "Be _careful_."

"Oh my God," she muttered, staring at the device. "Is this _real_?"

"Of course it's real. I made it almost similar to my own. It just has a few ... _extra_ features programmed in it."

"No. Way." She slowly turned it in her hand, admiring every detail of it.

"Thank you, Doctor. Really," she said, admiration flooding her words. She gave him a loving nudge in the shoulder.

"Elaine," Melissa said. "These are for you."

She unwrapped the first box, which held three _Naked_ palettes from Urban Decay. She checked the wrappings to see whom it was from, and ran into Jess's arms, giggling.

"You have a great taste in makeup," she said with her head rested on Jess's shoulder.

"I literally asked the Sephora lady what I should get you," Jess said through laughter. "She said she knew you. I think her name was Georgie, or something?"

"Oh. My. God." Elaine said, covering her mouth. "Okay, so we met in this really funny way I gotta tell you guys ..."

And Elaine went on for twenty minutes about how she befriended a Sephora saleslady by accidentally hitting on her and who may or may not sometimes give her free goodies.

"I s'pose this one's for me?" the Doctor said, reaching for the blue envelope that had his name written on it.

Jess looked at the envelope with confusion. "It's not from me," she said.

"Not from me," Elaine repeated, her hands lifted up in innocence.

"Not from me either," Melissa said.

With a furrowed brow, the Doctor stood up and walked into the kitchen, tearing open the evelope.

"Doctor," Jess said, following him. "What is it?"

He finished reading the note and hastily threw it into the flames of the fireplace of the living room.

"I'll be right back," he said, putting on his coat. "I have to do something."


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Someone's Coming

"Doctor!" Jess called, scrambling to follow his quick pace. " _Doctor_ , what's going on?"

He didn't answer. She glanced behind her shoulder. Elaine and Melissa both had confused expressions plastered on their faces from their places in front of the small Christmas tree.

She heard a groan escape her lips. "You stay here, I'll go talk to Mr. Mysterious."

Jess's footsteps were muffled by the heavy thud of rain. Her toes made a squashing noise with the impact of the wet earth. The journey to the TARDIS seemed longer than usual, but she eventually found herself outside the blindingly blue doors.

Fishing the silver key out of her pants pocket, she fumbled with unlocking the doors. When it opened, she was met with an empty control room.

"Doctor," she shouted, walking around the dimly lit room. She bumped into a gravity globe. She gave it a shake before throwing it across the room.

" _Ow_ ," she heard from somewhere below her. She walked around the main floor until she found the mezzanine and jumped down. She crossed her arms at the sight of the Doctor nose-deep in an old book, his round glasses sliding down his nose.

"I thought you threw that out," she pondered aloud, seeing the word _manual_.

The Doctor's eyes met hers cautiously. He flipped over the manual and looked at the cover.

"What," Jess breathed. The two sat facing each other, legs crossed, equally confused.

"I found a new one," he said, the curious expression not lifting from his features. "Can you read what it says?"

"Yeah ... ?" she responded, bemused. The odd expression didn't lift from his features. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He paused for a moment, his eyes flicking back to the book in his hands.

"It's written in Gallifreyan."

"So? The TARDIS translates ..." a look of realization flashed in her face, "... everything except Gallifreyan ..."

Jess felt as if her heart would leap out of her chest. "Doctor, what does this mean?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "But we have other things to worry about."

He stood up and ran around the main floor, pulling at levers and pushing buttons, his forehead creased in concentration. Jess pulled herself up and watched as he fumbled with the controls, mesmerized with his actions, as if she were witnessing a choreography.

"Hold on a second," Jess said, stepping away from the Doctor as he flailed around. "What do we have to worry about?"

The Doctor only paused momentarily before going back to work on ... whatever he was doing.

"Does this have something to do with that letter?" she questioned.

Realization hit her as she said those words, remembering her own mysterious letter waiting for her to open.

The Doctor dramatically pressed a flashing orange button before answering. "As a matter of fact, it does. "

"Doctor," she said, her eyes blank as her mind sped, "I got a note too. And it said I need to open it today."

His eyes widened, and he raced across the room so they were inches away.

"Hm," he hummed, staring her in the eyes.

"Hm?" she repeated, eyebrows arched in patience.

"I'm not entirely sure if we should share the contents of our letters with each other," he said, his brows furrowed, "as I don't know how directly related they are."

Jess felt around her pockets for the folded envelope. There was nothing there except a piece of paper with a phone number and her TARDIS key.

 _That's funny_ , she thought to herself, trying to seem nonchalant as her anxiety levels flew through the dimensionally transcendental roof.

"I didn't look at mine yet," she said, worry gripping at her throat. "And I _seem_ to have misplaced it."

"What the hell guys!" Jess jumped at the muffled voice. Both her and the Doctor edged towards the white doors.

"This isn't funny! Where'd you go off to? I could've sworn they were here ... great! Now I'm soaked."

Jess opened the door, cocking an eyebrow at seemingly dumbfounded and drenched Elaine, who held something in her right hand.

"How the _hell_ did you do that?" Elaine shrieked, noticing the two in front of her.

"What are you on about?"

"You just appeared out of thin air!" she said, her cerulean eyes wide in shock.

"I don't know what you're -"

"I had to ... do something to the TARDIS. Make it untraceable. And invisible. I'll tell you about it after you find your letter," the Doctor whispered to Jess.

Elaine held up the thing in your hand. "This letter?"

Jess grasped it from her, stuffing it in her pocket. "Where the hell'd you find that?"

"Must've fallen out of your pocket or something." She crossed her arms defensively. "Funny trick though, forging my handwriting, Bennett."

"What?" She looked at the cursive writing on the envelope. _Oh. It did look like Elaine's handwriting._

"Did you read it?" she asked, her mind racing with the possibilities of ruptures in the space time continuum if she'd seen something directly from her future.

"No," she said, not-so-convincingly. She sighed. "Alright. I tried to. But it's all circles and scribbles. Probably a diagram or something."

Jess looked over at the Doctor, her eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Gallifreyan," she muttered.

"Galluh ... huh?" Elaine questioned, her cerulean eyes clouded with confusion.

"It's Gallifreyan. The language of my people," the Doctor answered.

"It doesn't translate because it's the TARDIS's native tongue," Jess added, glancing over at the Doctor. He had an aged expression on his face, and she couldn't help but feel sad for him. For him, the Time Lords were dead. For him, he was the last Gallifreyan in existence. But that wasn't completely true. Not that she could explain that to the Doctor, of course.

"Alright, so if all of your other _Time_ _Lord_ people have spaceships like you do, why can't you just call one of them for help?"

"I'm all alone," he mustered. He didn't meet Elaine's eyes. "There was a war ... a war bigger than the universe. The only way to stop our enemy was to ... was to destroy my own people as well." His eyes wandered to the wet earth at his feet. "I'm the only one left."

A surge of empathy caused Jess to do something she'd never done before: she grabbed the Doctor's hand and squeezed it with her own.

"You're never alone, Doctor," Jess whispered, the rain masking the tears they were both silently beginning to shed.

"And indeed we aren't," he said, his tone lively all of a sudden. He sent a smirk in Jess's direction. "Because someone's coming."


	17. Chapter Seventeen: The Blue Letter Pt 2

"What the _hell_ do you mean, 'someone's coming'?" Jess looked up at the Doctor through a window of raindrops.

"The letter I was sent," he said, almost reluctantly, "it said someone's coming, and they'll do anything to steal my TARDIS. I don't know if it's UNIT or Torchwood or something more dangerous, but either way, I'm playing it safe."

Jess's forehead creased in confusion. "But we shouldn't have a UNIT," she said, her voice almost entirely washed out by the precipitation. "There aren't any aliens here."

"You can't know that for sure."

"What's UNIT?" Elaine pondered. She stood a few feet from Jess and the Doctor, her golden curls now a wet mess clinging to her skin. She stood with her arms crossed, annoyed that she didn't understand anything that was going on.

"It stands for 'Unified Intelligence Taskforce'," Jess said. "It's basically like an alien-driven CIA."

Elaine chuckled. "Doesn't that make them the same thing?"

Jess rolled her eyes comically. "You watch too much X-Files."

"Hey," she said, her hands raised in mock-defense. "You've got your sci-fi, I've got mine."

"You just like it because of Mulder," Jess accused, a giggle escaping her lips.

"Um, obviously you don't know me at all," she said matter-of-factly. "I watch it for Scully."

The two girls let out a soft cacophony of laughs before they noticed the Doctor wasn't standing where he'd been only moments before.

Both girls looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces before looking down. The Doctor was leaning against the invisible walls of the TARDIS, his damp hair shielding his eyes. Jess knelt down in front of him, the rush of blood pulsing in her ears.

"Doctor?" she said softly. The rain was now just a slight drizzle, and it echoed off the nonexistent walls of the police box.

He didn't respond. He didn't even look up.

Jess looked to Elaine for help, but she had as much of a clue to what was happening to her friend as she did.

"Doctor," she said, her voice only loud enough for him to hear.

Still, he didn't move.

"Try saying whatever you said earlier to him" Elaine suggested, tapping her on the shoulder. She had her thumbnail in between her teeth anxioiusly, sky blue eyes wide in uncertainty. "Can't hurt to try," she added.

Jess felt something against her knee. She looked down to see the Doctor's wrist grazing her maroon-striped trousers. She flipped over his limp wrist, and revealed the mundane watch that read 11:32. It wasn't moving.

"Laine," Jess whispered, still staring intently at the clockface. "What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty-four." She knelt down next to Jess, trying to read her face for answers. "Why?"

"His watch stopped two minutes ago," she said, more to herself than to Elaine.

"What does that mean?"

"I wonder if it happened earlier too." She pursed her lips, racking her brain in an attempt to remember what she said or did that brought him back to reality.

She sighed, remembering vaguely what she did. _It can't hurt to try_.

Jess placed her hand on the Doctor's cheek and tilted his head so he was looking at her eyes. Before she said anything, he was already coming to terms with what was around him. And just like it had that morning, whatever kind of trance the Doctor was in disappeared.

"Blimey, how'd I end up down here?" he whined. He stood up and attempted to brush off the water droplets that still clung to his suit. "I'm soaked."

"You had another one of those things where you totally spaced out, Doc," Elaine said, getting up herself. Jess followed, but she wasn't too interested in the conversation. Her head raced with thoughts about what had just happened: _How come I was able to fix him, if that was even the right word to describe it? Why is he like this all of a sudden? What's so special about me that I can cure whatever he's caught?_

"Look," Elaine said, pulling Jess from her thoughts. "If you're all set with your space stuff, why don't we go back to the house?" She pulled her sweater tighter around her body. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to drip."

"Sure, yeah. I hope Mom isn't too freaked out," Jess said as she absentmindedly made her way back to her house.

"There isn't much left to freak out over after having you for a daughter," Elaine said lightly, bringing Jess into a one-armed side hug. Jess giggled as the three of them made their way to the small periwinkle house.

And sure enough, Melissa was only slightly fazed as Elaine recalled what had happened. "... and supposedly we should probably get ready for something that may or may not be potentially dangerous ..."

Jess could feel the weight of the unread letter in her pocket grow heavier and heavier until she couldn't take the waiting anymore, she had to see what it said _now;_ that was, of course, if she could actually read it. It's not like the Gallifreyan looked like English to her, but somehow she could make out what the circles and lines meant while she was in the TARDIS.

Making her way to the kitchen counter, she set the letter in front of her.

Jess picked up the envelope, tracing her fingers along the sleek penmanship of who she could only conclude to have come from Elaine herself, maybe from sometime in the future, or perhaps it was just clever purgary. Either way, it was important, she could sense that without even opening it.

Her finger found its way under the flap of the envelope, pushing it upwards. She pulled out the faded white parchment from inside and unfolded the secret: five separate circles with dots and lines and crescent-like spots that Jess could understand perfectly, all alligned within one larger circle.

Five simple words that sent an eerie chill down her spine.

 _It's all up to you_.

And then there was a knock on the door.


	18. Chapter Eighteen: Family Affairs

Everyone stopped in their tracks. Jess, with the letter still in her hand, looked across the room for some sort of assurance that whomever was at the door wasn't dangerous.

"You don't think ..." Elaine began, pulling herself up from her spot on the carpet.

"I don't believe anyone who'd want to harm us would _knock,_ " the Doctor interjected, his eyes locked on the faded white door to his right.

There was another chorus of four knocks.

 _Oh no, not this again._ Jess swallowed the lump in her throat that formed without her permission. The last time there were a series of four knocks around the time of the Doctor's regeneration, well, they were somewhat the reason for it.

"Aren't you going to get it?" Elaine said, facing Melissa.

Her eyes widened in realization. "Oh! Yes, right."

She made her way to the door begrudgingly. Jess watched her crack it open, stare at the person behind the wooden frame, and promptly slam the door in their face.

"Who is it?"

Melissa turned to Jess, an emotion in her eyes that Jess couldn't quite place.

"It's your father."

And the lump returned in Jess's throat.

"Hold up," Elaine interrupted, her manicured hand raised. "You mean the asshole that walked out on you two?"

"That's the one."

Jess didn't know how to feel. All she could register was the ever-growing ball of worry stopping her from saying anything. The last memory she had of her father was one she hoped she could push from her mind:

 _Jessica rushed to close her door, her bare feet making too much noise as she scuttled across the hardwood floor to the safety of her bedroom._

 _All she heard were the screams and yells of her mother, the deep booms of her father. She'd grown used to the fighting, of course. Her parents had been in a never-ending argument for as long as she could remember._

 _That didn't make it any easier to hear, however._

 _She hopped onto her lilac-covered mattress, pulling the comforter over her head and blocking her ears with her chubby fingers._ Please make them stop, please make them stop, please please please please.

 _But no matter how much she tried to ignore the battle from below her and drift into a peaceful sleep, her mind wouldn't quiet._

 _"Jessie, sweetie," she heard from her door. It cracked open, the light of the hallway pouring into her pitch-black walls._

 _"Mhm," she mumbled from her nest of blankets. She felt the soft weight lift from her face and was met by a pair of blue eyes that usually were a sign of comfort to her. Now, however, she was just scared. Scared of the fighting, scared of the hate, scared of what could happen._

 _"Hey, sweetie, have you been crying?" He sits down on her mattress, a finger brushing away the partially-dried tears on her cheeks._

 _She nodded her head._

 _"Did you hear me and Mommy?" He brushed his hands through her mess of chestnut curls. She nodded again._

 _"Oh, Jessie." He held her tear-stained face in his hands. "You know I love you, right?"_

 _Eyes closed, head nuzzled into the palm of her father, she nodded_.

Jess's moment of nostalgia was interrupted by the Doctor's fingers lacing between hers. His touch sent something boiling through her veins. What it was, she didn't know. The closest word she could come up with to describe it was _courage_.

That sort of courage was just the thing she needed to make her way to the front door and swing it open, revealing a face she hadn't seen in years.

He was talking to someone she didn't recognize a few feet from the door. The woman was tall, with ashy hair that cut off at her ears and a poised disposition. Her icy eyes met hers almost immediately, and her father turned around after a nudge from the woman. He sprouted a grin that went from ear to ear, and pulled Jess into a hug that squeezed the breath from her lungs.

"Oh, Jessie!" he said, his face in the crook of her shoulder. "I missed you so so so so much."

It took Jess a solid minute to figure out what to say.

"Dad," she began after he'd let her go. She looked around the room. Melissa, the Doctor, and Elaine all sat on the sofa with different levels of astonishment plastered onto their faces. She took a step back, trying to piece what was happening together.

"It's been eight years," was all that she could manage. She blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"I know, I know. I messed up. I should've called -" he began, but Jess cut him off.

"Eight years," she repeated, a tear loosening its grip on her lid. "You left eight years ago. And I didn't even get a goodbye. No texts, no calls, not even a visit. Eight years I've lived without you."

"I know, and I'm sorry. Really, Jessie. I got in touch with your mother -"

"Mom?" she said, turning towards Melissa. "You knew about this?"

"Not exactly." She sighed, folding her arms. "I've been in touch with your dad for a few months." She stood up, taking Jess's shaking hand in her own. "He wants to get to know you. Who you've grown up to be. Now, I didn't think he'd go about that by showing up out of the blue," she said, sending him a slight glare. "But we were trying to figure out something so you two could be close again. Like it used to be."

Jess crossed her arms, her brows furrowing in frustration.

"Oh, c'mon kiddo," Rick said, bringing her in for another hug. "You couldn't have thought I'd be gone forever, right?"

Jess let herself smile into his tee shirt.

Her gaze shifted to the woman standing behind him. Rick's gaze followed her and a look of realization crossed his face. "Oh, of course. Mayra, this is Jessie. Jessie, this is Mayra," he said, his hand interlocking with hers. "She's my wife. And, also, your step-mom."

Jess didn't think anything else could surprise her that day. "Oh," was all that left her lips.

In all honesty, Jess always knew her dad would be off living another life with another family, but she never thought that she'd meet that family, let alone have a _step-mom_.

Jess turned around and gestured at her friends. "Um, so this is Elaine," Elaine sent a bubbly wave, "and this is ... John ..." The Doctor sent a tight smile in his direction.

Rick moved his finger between the Doctor and Melissa. "Are you two ...?"

"Oh, no," Melissa said, almost immediately. "Friendly neighbors." With that out of the way, the adults continued their conversation.

A random thought occurred to Jess. "Alright. So, if I have a step-mom, do I have any step-siblings as well?" If she did, they couldn't have been too old. Mayra looked the same age - if not younger than - her mother.

"You do, actually," Mayra said. Jess instantly fell in love with her voice. It was like melted caramel, and she had a slight English accent. Mayra grinned, "I have a son your age. And you have a half-sister as well. She's seven now." She looked up at Rick, and for a moment, Jess forgave all the terrible things Rick may have done. Because when they looked at each other, Jess could see love. And that was something she hadn't really been shown before.

Jess felt a buzz in her pocket, and reached to grab her phone. She'd spent most of the previous night discussing her life with Seth, and even afterwards they continued their conversation through texts.

 _ **seth:**_ _hellooooo jessica_

 _ **seth:**_ _where u at tho_

 _ **seth:**_ _i don't want to be annoying but i'm babysitting my lil sis and i'm boredddd_

She chuckled and sent a reply.

 _sorry lol my dad just showed up after 8 years? a christmas miracle amirite_

 _ **seth:**_ _o shit ok gotta blast don't wanna keep u away from ur daddy ;)_

Jess rolled her eyes.

"My _god_ Jess are you talking to Seth again?" Elaine whined from behind her.

"You know you're not my only friend," she said, sticking out her tongue playfully.

"When I set you two up I didn't know he'd be replacing me."

After a few minutes of the two girls bantering, Jess listened to the main conversation in the room.

"... I moved to America when I was thirteen. And I moved around a lot. It was tough, I suppose, but I got by. I had Seth when I was at university, and Wren seven years ago, and we all moved to New York ..."

Elaine turned to Jess before she could put it together herself.

" _Seth_?" she whispered to Jess. "Like, _your_ Seth?"

"First off, he's not _my Seth_ ," she began, the urge to roll her eyes stronger than ever. "And second, Seth's a common name."

But no matter how much she tried to push the thought from her mind, Jess couldn't help but see the connections. Living in New York, having a little sister, moving around when he was younger, having a step-dad named Rick, coming here for Christmas, it all lead up to one plausible conclusion: Jess's new friend was also her step-brother.


	19. Chapter Nineteen: Welcome to the Family

Before she knew it, Jess was being dragged by her wrist to her room by Elaine.

"How _weird_ would that be though?" she went on, her curls flickering as she flew up the stairs. "Like you two had a definite thing going on last night. And if he's your brother -"

"Stop it right there," Jess interjected, rolling her eyes. "Should we really do this now? Everyone's downstairs -"

"They didn't say anything when we got up." Elaine opened the chipped door, plopping herself on Jess's bed.

"This is so much in one day, I don't know if I can handle all of this." Jess took a seat at her desk, her knees pulled up to her chest.

"C'mon, you're _Jessica Bennett_. You deal with me all the time, and I know _that_ can be pretty difficult. _And_ you were able to handle your favorite fictional character landing on your doorstep _pretty_ well in my opinion." She grabbed a red Dalek plushie and rested her chin on it. "If you can handle that, you can handle anything."

Jess breathed out a laugh. "But I don't know why he'd choose _now_ of all times." She flipped her phone between her fingers. "He was gone for eight _years_. More than half of my life. And he just _shows up_ out of nowhere." She leaned her head back in exasperation. "I just don't know what to _do_ , Laine."

Elaine flipped over so her back was on the comforter, her golden curls cascading from her shoulders. "Just talkto him, I guess. I mean, he _is_ your dad. Weren't you two close when you were younger?"

"Eight years," she repeated, giving Elaine a playful stare.

Elaine raised her perfectly applied eyebrow in response.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she mumbled, flipping the device in the air.

"Now, onto more important things," Elaine said, snatching Jess's phone before she could reach it. "We gotta know if Seth is really your brother."

" _Step_ -brother," Jess corrected, trying to grab her phone from Elaine's grasp. "And I'm not just gonna say to him, _'hey, wouldn't it be cool if we were step siblings? because we might be'._ "

"This is why you never do the talking," Elaine teased, sitting up on the mattress. "Alright, are you gonna do it or shall I?"

Jess held out her hand, and Elaine reluctantly placed the phone back into her palm. She brought up their conversation and pulled up the keyboard.

"Laine," she said, her eyes not leaving the screen, "what the hell do I say?"

She giggled and looked over her best friend's shoulder. "Just be casual."

"Easier said than done," she mumbled as she began to type.

 _hiya setharoo_

He only took a minute to reply.

 _ **seth:**_ _hello jess the Mess_

Jess giggled to herself. _Rude, but true_.

 _i need to ask you a question and it may be kinda weird so bear with me_

 _ **seth:**_ _o gosh u hate me_

 _ohmygod no no of course not_

 _ **seth:**_ _oh okay then shoot :):)_

 _ok so um, what's your last name?_

 _ **seth:**_ _this isn't for some sort of satanic ritual right_

 _no omg that's more elaine's gig than mine_

 _ **seth:**_ _alright ... it's larson_

 _oh thank god. i was really worried_

 _because my dad, the one that i haven't seen in 8 years, brought his new wife and she has a son named seth and i was afraid we were like step siblings or something_

 _ **seth:**_ _well i don't have my step dads name_

 _ **seth:**_ _larson was my moms name_

 _oh crap ok well what's your moms name_

 _ **seth:**_ _mayra walden_

Even though Jess half-expected this outcome, her phone landed on the floor with an audible crash.

"That's not good," Elaine said, watching her intently.

"He's my brother," she said, her voice a whisper. "Seth is my ... _brother_."

Jess didn't know how to feel. One second, she was an only child. Her dad wasn't part of her life, it was just her and her mom. The next, she had a brother and a sister, another mother, and her father again.

It was almost too much to handle.

 _ **seth:**_ _jess?_

 _ **seth:**_ _r u ok?_

Jess took a deep breath, and shakily typed a reply.

 _hey so you probably won't believe me but turns out you might be my step brother surprise !_

Jess watched, horrified, as she watched Seth type and delete for what seemed to be hours.

At last, he sent a reply.

 _ **seth:**_ _welcome to the family ?_

"So how'd he handle it?" Elaine questioned, looking up from her own phone.

"Better than I did, honestly," Jess said.

"One thing I don't understand though," Elaine began, flicking her hair over her shoulder, "is that the Doctor said someone was coming. So was he talking about your dad, or is there something else?"

"Let's hope it's not the latter, I've had enough excitement for one day."

As soon as Jess said that, however, there was a deafening _crash_ below them. Both girls fled down the stairs to see the front door knocked over and dozens of men in SWAT gear fill the lower level of the house. They froze on the stair case, hands rising above their heads with uncertainty. Elaine let out a quiet screech from behind Jess.

"DON'T MOVE!" one of the men shouted, a gun pointed at Melissa. Jess felt her stomach fly into her throat.

She looked behind her shoulder at Elaine. Elaine, who was usually level-headed, in control of every situation, now a silent mess of tears. As black-suited men raced past her on the flight of stairs into the upper floor, Jess laced her fingers through Elaine's and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"You two. Down here," another of the men said, pointing at Jess and Elaine. Hand in hand, they rushed their way into Melissa's arms.

Jess looked up at her mother, tears in her eyes. Then at her father, her step-mother, and ... where was the Doctor?

"Mum," Jess whispered, her voice barely loud enough for Melissa to hear. "Where's the Doctor?"

"I thought he was with you," she said, her eyes not leaving the swarm of men overtaking her house.

"Melissa," Rick muttered under his breath. "What the _hell_ is going on?"

"I've got just as much of an idea as you do," she spat.

"Enough talking," the man warned. He wasn't dressed like the rest of the men in the house. He wore a fitted magenta suit, and his white hair was slicked back. His icy blue eyes were like lasers as they bore into Jess's.

"What's going on?" Melissa questioned.

The man didn't respond.

"We found him!" Jess heard from somewhere in the house. She watched as the Doctor was being dragged by his arms down the stairs and thrown in front of the magenta-clad man.

"Please, don't harm them. They didn't do anything," he pleaded from his knees. His hands were cuffed behind his back.

The man chuckled, lifting the Doctor by his collar. He looked up at the men around him, "Take them all in."


	20. Chapter Twenty: Prepare for Trouble

The six of them - Jess, Elaine, Melissa, Rick, Mayra, and the Doctor - were led to the front yard, where dozens of menacing vehicles littered the driveway and the street behind it.

 _They must've closed off the street,_ Jess thought. _Whoever these people are, they mean business_.

Jess watched the man in the magenta suit intently as he led her and the others to a group of large, prison-like vans. In a bold, white font, the word C.H.A.I.S.E. stood out against the dark exterior.

"Do you know who these people are?" Elaine questioned, turning to Jess.

"No, I've never heard of C.H.A.I.S.E. before."

They were halted, along with their captors. Jess heard Elaine mutter a 'sorry' under her breath and felt the weight of her friend knock into hers.

"Laine, just take your heels off," Jess muttered.

Elaine rolled her eyes. "These shoes cost me like, a thousand bucks. I'm not just gonna leave them on your lawn."

Before she could answer, Jess felt herself hit the ground with a _thud._ A stinging pain grew in the back of her head.

"That's _enough_ talking," said one of the men behind her. Jess picked herself up, her palm scratched against the rough pavement. She brought it up to her nose. Blood dripped from the smear on the back of her hand. With a groan, she wiped away what she could with the back of her sleeve.

"Three in each," the man in the suit said from somewhere behind Jess. "Don't want our new friends planning anything clever, now do we?" The man walked over to Jess and put a hand on her shoulder, a devilish smile revealing his unnaturally white teeth. Without thinking, Jess spat the blood that was beginning to drip into her mouth on the man's face. Gleaming smile intact, he wiped off the blood from his brow with a patterned handkerchief.

"You know what to do." The statement wasn't directed at her, but at the man holding her arm. Tightening his grip, he brought both of her arms behind her back and tied her wrists together. One of the other men in gear stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth.

"That should keep you behaved," the man taunted, flashing another one of his smiles.

Jess could feel something bubble up within her chest as she was tossed into the back of the van with the Doctor and Elaine. Whether it was fear or anger or something else entirely, she didn't know.

The doors slammed shut. The three of them strained against the restraints that were fastened to their wrists and ankles. Jess pushed the blood-soaked rag from her mouth and leaned over to wipe the dripping blood from her face with her knee.

"Jess, are you okay?" Elaine asked, worry present in her shaking voice. Jess definitely looked the worse of the two of them, Elaine only had a small cut above her eyebrow. Jess nodded, bringing the cloth to her nose.

"So, Doctor," Jess began, turning to her bowtie-wearing friend. "D'you have any idea what's going on?"

He shook his head defeatedly. "I'm so sorry. This is my fault."

"Of course this isn't your fault. You couldn't have known this would happen," Jess said, attempting to reassure him.

"I guess you're right." He gave her a forced smile. "But I bet this won't be on your list of favorite Christmases."

"Are you kidding?" Jess said, a smile tugging on her lips. "I saw my dad for the first time in eight years, I've got my two best friends by my side; I mean these chains are pretty uncomfortable but otherwise I'm having a pretty good Christmas."

"Hold on," Elaine said, holding up her hand. "Does that thing you got this morning work on metal?"

"What thing -" Jess felt the bulge in her pocket. "Oh, you mean my sonic?" She fished it from her jacket and held it against the metal on her wrist. Pushing a button on the side, the screwdriver glowed a bright green against her skin. With an audible _click_ , the restraints unlocked, and Jess wrung her sore wrists in relief.

"Damn, that thing's pretty cool," Elaine said, holding out her arms. "Me next?"

Jess looked over at the Doctor. "Where's yours, Doctor?"

"I left it in the TARDIS," he said. "Couldn't risk keeping it on me. We still don't know who these people are."

Jess brought the tip of the screwdriver to her ankles, illuminating her off-white Converse in the sonic's green light. Another click, and her legs were freed. After doing the same to Elaine and the Doctor, both girls turned to their tweed-clad friend.

"So, what now?" Elaine asked.

"Now we wait."

"What do you mean, 'wait'?" Jess crossed her arms, her brows furrowed in confusion. "Shouldn't we get out of here while we can?"

"There's still another van carrying your parents. Plus, I want to find out what this organization is, and what C.H.A.I.S.E. means."

"Do you have any ideas so far?"

"Might be a sort of private Torchwood. Harvesting and using alien technology for their own use. This doesn't seem very government-run, if you ask me."

"How'd they find us though? The TARDIS is undetectable."

"Maybe they've been searching for me for a while. Maybe this is just a coincidence. I have no way of knowing for sure until we get there," he eyed Jess's sonic, which she still gripped in her hand, "so no breaking out."

"Yessir," Jess mocked, giving the Doctor a salute. She crossed her legs and leaned against Elaine's shoulder. "Whatever this organization is, it creeps me out."

Not too soon after their conversation, Jess felt the vehicle's engine quiet. "I think we've stopped."

The doors squeaked open. More men brought the three of them from the van and through what seemed like some sort of garage.

"D'you see the other van?" Jess whispered to the Doctor. He shook his head.

"How'd you three get out of the handcuffs?" one of the men asked, the unlocked chain in his hand.

Jess swallowed the lump in her throat. "They, uh, didn't make us wear them."

The man looked at Jess warily, but eventually gave a tired shrug. "Whatever. Not my problem."

The three of them were escorted through a maze more infinite than the TARDIS. After what seemed like days of winding through dimly-lit corridors, they arrived at a steel door.

The man leading them gave it a loud knock. Jess could feel her heart rise to her throat.

"Come in." Jess could've sworn she'd heard that voice before.

With Elaine and the Doctor behind her, the three were ushered into an ornate room very unlike the drab maze that led to it. A chandelier hung over an enormous mahogany desk, where a blond, balding man in a fitted emerald suit sat. She'd only met him twice, maybe three times. But those stormy grey eyes were unforgettable; eyes so much like her best friend's.

"Dad?" Elaine gasped.

"Elaine," he said, his voice like ice. "Jessica." He turned to the Doctor. "But who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," he answered with a faux smirk. "And who are you?"

"Charles Harper. And, yes, Elaine's father."

Elaine blinked so hard Jess was worried her eyelashes would fall off. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"This is my office." He gestured to the gold plaque with his name engraved in it. "I'm terribly sorry for the transportation, but it was the fastest way I could get you all here."

"Where's my mom?" Jess demanded. "My dad? Mayra?"

Charles smirked, his steely eyes bright with amusement. "We really only have use for you three. There is something on your property, Miss Bennett, that you three know about. And it's my duty to find out what exactly that is and how I can use it to benefit the human race."

"You're never gonna get it," Elaine said, her eyes a storm. "And you never will. It's not yours to take."

"Goodness Elaine, didn't your mother and I ever teach you anything? Don't be so naive, money can get you anything."

"Except love," she whispered, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "You sure haven't been able to buy that from me."

He leaned back against his desk, arms crossed. "Even so ... I'm not a father here, I'm a business man. If you'd rather stay with them, I have no power in stopping you."

"I'd choose them any day." Jess felt Elaine's hand grab her own.

"As you wish." Charles brought his wrist to his mouth. "Brock, I'm gonna need an escort for three down here. Operation Cobalt."

A voice answered from the watch-like device. "Where to, sir?"

"Hmm. Let's start with the showroom. These three have a lot to see."

Elaine squeezed Jess's hand, which still rested in her own. Jess reached over and grabbed the Doctor's.

"D'you think now's a good time to come up with a team name?" Elaine said, staring at the steel door in front of them. "Since we're in the bad guy's domain now, we gotta have a catchy title. Maybe even a theme song."

"I'm a fan of Team TARDIS," Jess suggested. "Catchy _and_ simple."

"I'll second that," the Doctor muttered from beside them.

"Third." The door opened, and a burly man with sunglasses hiding his eyes stood before them.

"I smell trouble," Elaine muttered.

"Make that double," Jess said through a chuckle.

"We could be Team Rocket instead ..." Elaine said, leading the way out the door. Blonde curls bounced behind her.

"I prefer Team TARDIS. Less potential to screw everything up."

"I have no idea what you two are on about," the Doctor interrupted, a ghost of a smile tugging on his lips.

"Educate yourself on Geek Culture, Doctor," Elaine chimed.

"You're almost a thousand years old, yet you're as clueless as a Psyduck."

"Is that an insult?" the Doctor questioned, brows raised in confusion.

Jess's only answer was a breathy giggle, and Team TARDIS walked hand in hand into definite danger with smiles bright on their faces.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One: A Selfless Plan

Jess, Elaine, and the Doctor followed the burly man begrudgingly; Jess, with her nose still trickling a small stream of blood. She wondered if the Doctor could feel a burning sensation on his back from Jess's irate stare. Before this fiasco, Jess was having the best Christmas of her life. But now, she was stuck in a sketchy underground facility following her two closest friends to what could very well be their demise.

"Hey Jess," Elaine said, nudging her side. "You don't really think my dad's the bad guy here, right?"

Jess turned to stare her best friend in her steel eyes. "It seems too...fake." They began to pick up the pace. Jess struggled to keep up; her short legs were no match for the others' longer ones. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole C.H.A.I.S.E. thing was a hoax."

She saw the Doctor raise a brow.

"What do you mean?" Elaine gaped at her.

"Everything seems so planned. I don't think this whole 'secret alien intelligence facility' is the whole story." Jess eyed their guide, whose hand was hovering over his pocket. "I think this is a setup. Someone wanted the three of us to be right here, at right this moment."

The three captives stopped.

"We have to keep moving," Brock said, his tone monotonous.

Elaine glanced at Jess, her eyes saying _What are you up to?_

Jess looked ahead, beyond Brock. In the distance, there was a dull light. _Maybe it's an exit._

She locked eyes with Elaine, then with the Doctor. He nodded, and Elaine bit her lip with uncertainty.

" _Vatican cameo_ ," she shouted, grabbing Elaine's hand. With her other, she pulled the sonic screwdriver from her sleeve and brought it to Brock's neck.

"If you know anything about us, you'll know how screwed you are right now." His black shades fell to the floor with a _clank_.

Jess aimed the tip of the screwdriver at his hand, sending the gun he procured flying across the floor. Jess picked it up, moving it between her hands in curiosity.

"Jess," the Doctor warned, sending her an ancient glare.

She huffed, slightly annoyed, but tucked it in her jeans.

"Is that an exit down there?" Jess questioned, pointing towards the dull light.

Brock didn't say anything. Jess brought the screwdriver back up to his face.

"I'm not sure if you heard me. I said, _is that an exit_?"

Brock nodded.

"Thanks man!" Elaine blurted, running down the corridor. Jess began after her.

"Jess, wait." The Doctor grabbed her wrist. He locked his multicolored eyes with her own. "I need to find out what this place is."

Jess scoffed and recoiled her arm from his grasp. "Of course you'd be stupid enough to stay."

He stepped back, confusion clouding his eyes.

"You know what I mean." She put the screwdriver back in her pocket. "You'd risk your life to find amusement in danger. It's what you always do."

"I don't _'always do'_ that!" he retorted, his arms crossing at his chest.

Elaine tugged on Jess' sleeve. "Come on guys, let's go."

"Hold on," the Doctor said, turning around.

"No! You're not gonna change the conversation on me—" Jess began, but the Doctor interrupted.

"Shh!" His eyes moved towards the ceiling. "Brock's gone."

Jess looked behind the Doctor. Where the tall man stood moments ago was nothing but a wall.

"Is this another setup?" Elaine said, her eyes moving upward as well.

Jess looked up. Red lasers pointed at the three of them through a thin glass ceiling. Men in SWAT gear ran down the corridor with large guns in their hands. Jess' eyes met with the Doctor's, a wave of fear spreading throughout her whole body.

"What do we do?" she whispered. They were surrounded, all except for that light at the end of the hall...

The Doctor nodded his head.

"On three, you two need to _run_." She grasped the screwdriver tighter in her hand.

"What are you up to?" Elaine said, stepping towards her.

"One."

Elaine tried to pry her from where she was standing. " _Jess_."

"Two."

The Doctor grabbed Elaine's hand.

" _Three._ "

She pointed the green light at the ceiling, and the whole building shook with the impact of the glass and the men as they fell to the floor. The Doctor had dragged Elaine almost halfway to the illuminated door. Jess raced after them, a trail of unscathed men at her heels.

"Go, go, go!" she screamed at the two of them. They held open the metal doors for her, but the men behind her were getting closer.

"Come on Jess! You can make it!" Elaine yelled. But Jess knew her plan had worked too well. She had saved her friends, but at the cost of her own freedom. She held the screwdriver in the direction of her friends. With an almost deafening _buzz_ , the gargantuan doors slammed shut.

Jess's feet dragged to a stop. Turning around, she faced the swarm of men with her head help high. A single tear rolled down her sweat-drenched cheek.

Reaching behind her back, she procured the gun she got from Brock. Her finger traced the barrel, down the back and across the magazine. It rested on the trigger, stagnant.

"Put down the gun, girl," an unfamiliar voice rang from behind a shield of men.

"Who are you?" she demanded, the gun gripped tight in her hand.

"Oh, no one important really." The men stepped aside, leaving a path down the middle. A woman emerged from behind them. Her blood red lipstick was the same shade as her suit. "Just someone that thinks it would be in your best interest to put down that weapon before you hurt someone."

Jess let the gun fall from her grasp.

"My name is Constance Winfield, and I'm afraid you may be in terrible danger, Miss Bennett."


End file.
